Oldest Firearm in US History Found in Arizona

Archaeologists in Arizona have uncovered a bronze cannon which dates back to the Coronado Expedition of the early 16th century. Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (1510 -1554), a Spanish nobleman and conquistador, led a sizeable expedition from what is now Mexico across the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542.

The cannon, according to the study published in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology (behind paywall), is the oldest firearm ever discovered in the continental United States. It is technically a “wall gun,” a sort of scaled up smoothbore musket designed to be positioned along a wall for defense and devastating firepower.

The cannon measures a little over a meter in length and was designed to be fired from a fixed and stationary position, attached to a wooden mount. The lack of decoration on the barrel points to it being produced somewhere in the Americas: cannon transported from Spain were typically much more ornate.

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The cannon was found in a Spanish-era stone and adobe structure near the Santa Cruz river still in situ, which allowed for an accurate dating. It is the first firearm ever found from the Coronado Expedition.  

Coronado was famously searching for the Seven Cities of Gold, guided by the Franciscan Friar Marcos de Niza. Guided badly, as it turned out, for he found not fabulous wealth and treasure but a series of small pre-Columbian pueblo townships. 

Coronado was not an enlightened man, and his path of destruction through what is now Kansas, Arizona and Nex Mexico was haunted by bloodshed and violence. He took what he could and burned the rest.

But, given his bloodthirsty nature, the find also comes with a puzzle. The building in which the cannon was found is in San Geronimo III, established in 1540 and the first European settlement in the region. This township was famously attacked by the Sobaipuri locals and deserted, but the gun was never fired in defense. Why?

Perhaps it was too cumbersome, as it was known to be a primitive and near-obsolete design by the 16th century. Perhaps it was poorly positioned, but it was certainly abandoned without being brought to bear in the defense of the settlement.

Original paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10761-024-00761-7.

Header Image: The Coronado bronze cannon is the oldest firearm in US history. Source: Deni J Seymour / International Journal of Historical Archaeology.