EL CUARTELEJO To escape Spanish oppression, a group of Indians from Taos Pueblo left their home in New Mexico and settled in what is today Scott County. Here they lived alongside the Kiowa Apaches with whom they hunted and planted crops from the 1660s to 1680s, when Spanish soldiers came to force them back to their homes. Then Indians from Picuris Pueblo arrived in 1696 to join the Apaches, but in 1706, the Spanish came to escort them back. The Apaches probably remained here until the 1730s and then moved south.
They left behind a multi-room pueblo home built of rock and adobe. Inside the pueblowas evidence of ladders used to enter and leave the building from the roof, pottery from the pueblos of the Southwest, and an adobe stand for a stone slab used to grind corn. No other pueblo sites have been located this far north and east. Today the site is within Lake Scott State Park. In 1970 the foundation was rebuilt to appear as it had when discovered in 1898. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is designated a National Historic Landmark.
Note: This sign was replaced in 2012.
US-83, Scott County,
Roadside turnout, 10.5 miles north of Scott City
Plaque via Kansas Historical Society, and is used with their permission. Full page