““The region is, of course, altogether valueless.... Ours has been the first, and will doubtless be the last, party of whites to visit this profitless locality.””

— in 1858, the first Euro-American to follow in Cárdenas’s footsteps, Lt. Joseph Christmas Ives of the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, had a similar reaction. In his official report, Ives waxed lyrical about the magnificent scenery but concluded, “