The marker commemorates the passage of Francisco Vazquez de Coronado's expedition across the Texas Panhandle in 1541. Coronado had marched north from Mexico City the previous year searching for the fabled golden Seven Cities of Cibola; finding only Pueblo villages in present New Mexico, he pushed the expedition's roughly 1,500 people, soldiers, priests, servants, Indigenous allies, and herds of sheep and cattle, further east chasing rumors of a wealthy kingdom called Quivira. In practical terms, day-to-day life on the march meant hunting bison ("cibolo") on the Llano Estacado for food, foraging, guiding by compass across trackless plains, and fording canyons cut into the caprock. The column crossed the Panhandle plains to present Tule Canyon, where Coronado split off a smaller advance party of about 30 men that traveled north through a route later called "Needle Point," passing near Palo Duro Canyon and through what is now Armstrong County before continuing into Kansas. Failing to find riches, the expedition turned back to Mexico in 1542. The Texas historical marker recognizing this route was erected in 1969 by the State Historical Survey Committee at the Armstrong County Courthouse in Claude, near Palo Duro Canyon. It functions purely as a roadside commemorative marker, maintained by the Texas Historical Commission and visited by travelers tracing the Coronado Trail and regional Panhandle heritage-tourism routes.