Oldest Gun Found in the US

No posts.

Home

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Dr. Deni Seymour poses with the 500-year-old firearm.

Total Pageviews

Hello! I'm Mr. Ed

Blog Created: 7-2-2026

Credits:

Followers

Archaeologists Accidentally Discovered the Oldest Gun Ever Found in America ~

Story by Tim Newcomb.

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

- Archaeologists excavating a Spanish stone-and-adobe structure in Arizona uncovered a 480-year-old gun.

- Experts believe the “wall gun” was associated with the Coronado expedition.

- The wall gun is now considered the oldest firearm ever found within the continental United States.

- On his quest to find the mythical Seven Cities of Gold somewhere in the American southwest, Spanish explorer Vázquez de Coronado left behind some materials after a pit stop that, while perhaps an afterthought to him, included what is now a major piece of archaeological and weapon history in the United States.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A team of researchers uncovered a bronze cannon, or “wall gun,” in Arizona and, using radiocarbon dating among other dating techniques, pegged the 480-year-old device to the Coronado expedition. By virtue of its age, the cannon is the oldest firearm ever discovered within the continental confines of the United States.

In a study published in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology, a team of researchers revealed the 2020 find from the floor of a Spanish stone-and-adobe structure in Arizona at the former settlement of San Geronimo III in what is now Nogales, Arizona, for the first time.

Radiocarbon dating places the gun in the same time period of the 1539-1542 Coronado expedition, led by the Spanish explorer in hopes of finding the gold cities of Cibola, which were rumored by conquistadors to exist somewhere in what would become the southwestern U.S.

“This wall gun is the first gun known to be associated with the Coronado expedition and is the oldest firearm ever found within the continental USA,” the study authors wrote, “and perhaps the oldest cannon currently known on the continent.”

This was no small pistol, though. At 42 inches in length and weighing 40 pounds, researchers say it would have taken two people to operate. But that apparently wasn’t necessary. There were no bullets found near the gun—the team did uncover plenty of broken swords and daggers, fishhooks, pottery, and other items—and the lack of residue in the barrel indicated it was never fired.

“I was in shock,” Deni Seymour, archaeologist and lead author, told the Washington Post about the find. “It was just an odd feeling that I rarely get.”

A wall gun is considered a beefed-up musket and got its name as it was often used at a building’s wall or a ship’s railing. While it’s not what we traditionally think of when we hear the word, it is also referred to as a cannon, largely because of the smoothbore nature of the barrels. The 480-year-old gun was likely built in the early 1500s and brought on the expedition after manufacturing in either Mexico or the Caribbean, the study suggests. It was then abandoned at the site hundreds of years ago.

“An artifact like this can connect people to the past, to history, and really stirs their imagination,” Seymour said.

The expedition led by Coronado was a Spanish effort that started in Mexico and explored the American southwest with the goal of finding the Seven Cities of Cibola, which were proven to be just a myth. While no gold-adorned cities were ever located, the explorers became the first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon.

Seymour told the Post that since the initial discovery in 2020, she has uncovered a second, similar cannon. “The cannon is pretty darn wonderful, but each artifact we find and the context of them has the potential to convey a really interesting part of the story,” she said. “And that’s what’s fun about it. That’s what’s interesting, and that’s what keeps me going.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FROM:

Archaeologists Unearth The Oldest Firearm Ever Found In The U.S. At An Adobe Structure In Arizona ~

By Amber Morgan | Edited By Cara Johnson.

Published November 26, 2024

Archaeologists discovered a 500-year-old bronze cannon that was carried by one of the first European expeditions into the New World, Spanish conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado's 16th-century journey into the American Southwest.

La conquista del Colorado, by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau, depicts Coronado’s expedition and his soldiers.

Archaeologists have officially uncovered the oldest firearm ever found in the continental United States, a 500-year-old bronze cannon. The wall gun is linked to the 16th-century expedition of Spanish conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado into the Southwestern United States. It was discovered beneath the remnants of an adobe wall believed to have collapsed during a battle between Coronado’s forces and a local Indigenous tribe.

Measuring 42 inches long and weighing 40 pounds, the two-person portable gun was meant to provide protection for the expedition at their outpost in Arizona’s Santa Cruz Valley. However, the firearm shows no evidence of use, and it was likely abandoned when Spanish forces retreated after an attack on the settlement. Still, its discovery is shedding new light on the Coronado expedition.

For more than three decades, Deni Seymour, an archaeologist who specializes in Indigenous and Spanish history of the American Southwest, has studied the historical route of conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado.

In 1540, Vázquez de Coronado left Mexico for the U.S. in search of the “Seven Cities of Gold.” With an expedition totaling roughly 2,500 people, Vázquez de Coronado traveled as far north as Kansas before returning to Mexico in 1542.

Because Vázquez de Coronado’s journal entries were unclear, researchers have long debated the true route of his expedition. Very little archaeological evidence of Vázquez de Coronado and his group has ever been discovered — until recently.

After poring over old manuscripts and surveying terrain in southern Arizona, archaeologist Deni Seymour and her team located a lost settlement of Vázquez de Coronado — and there, Seymour unearthed the oldest firearm ever found in the continental U.S.

The discovery started with a single nail. When Dr. Seymour spotted several iron nails dating back to the 16th century in the Santa Cruz Valley of Arizona, she was convinced she was on the right track. Seymour continued excavating the area until she found the bronze cannon hidden beneath a collapsed wall on the floor of a stone and adobe structure.

It was 42 inches long and weighed about 40 pounds. It was likely cast in Mexico or the Caribbean because it featured a simple design rather than the ornamental decorations typically seen on weapons made in Spain. It would have primarily been used as a wall gun to defend the Spanish fortifications, but it could also be placed on a wooden stand and transported to blast through the adobe walls of the local Indigenous people from distances of up to 700 yards.

Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the gun dated back to the time of the Coronado expedition.

“This wall gun is the first gun known to be associated with the Coronado expedition and is the oldest firearm ever found within the continental U.S.A., and perhaps the oldest cannon currently known on the continent,” researchers wrote in their study, which has now been published in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology.

Remarkably, the cannon showed no evidence that it had ever been fired — and researchers think they know why.

The Ill-Fated Expedition Of Francisco Vázquez De Coronado ~

When Vázquez de Coronado left Mexico with his caravan of soldiers, their families, and some 1,500 Indigenous allies, he traveled into the modern-day Southwestern U.S. to search for the Cities of Cíbola, or the “Seven Cities of Gold.”

In Arizona, they built a small town known as San Geronimo III. However, not long after the settlement was constructed, the Sobaipuri people attacked, forcing the Spanish to retreat. The surviving soldiers left so quickly they abandoned some weapons — including this bronze cannon. It is possible that the firearm was never used because the adobe structure on which it was mounted collapsed during the attack before the Spanish even had a chance to load the weapon.

“This final blow seems to be the precipitating event that led to the abandonment of the wall gun, where it remained snugly encased in an eroded Spanish adobe-and-rock-walled structure [ruin] for 480 years,” Seymour and her colleagues wrote.

While the cannon was the most significant discovery made at San Geronimo III, other artifacts such as fragments of European pottery, olive jars, and weapon parts are adding to the wealth of information about the Coronado expedition that’s been revealed at the newfound site.