- Other names
- Lake Copala, Teguayo
- Searched for by
- Coronado, Oñate, Rivera
- Reached
- September 1776
- Gold found
- None
The peoples of Mexico told the Spanish that their ancestors came from seven caves near a great lake far to the north, the Lake of Copala. Later the Spanish heard of a land called Teguayo, near that same lake, with towns all along its shores.
In the 1500s and 1600s the stories grew. At Zuni, one Spanish party was told that sixty days north on foot there was a great lake with towns on its banks, and that the people there had plenty of gold. Coronado heard of it. Juan de Oñate organized a search for it by 1604. In 1765 Juan Rivera went north from Santa Fe partly to learn whether Lake Copala and Teguayo were real.
Historians have long suggested that the lake in these stories was Utah Lake, the home of the Timpanogos people, who lived well on its fish, birds and game compared with their neighbors.
When Domínguez and Escalante finally reached Utah Lake in 1776, they found a lake, villages and a people living well. They did not find gold. The lake of the legend turned out to be rich in a different way.