The fabled El Dorado, city of gold, has been a matter of legend for centuries.
Among the most famous were the expedition undertaken by Diego de Ordaz, whose lieutenant Martinez claimed to have been rescued from shipwreck, conveyed inland, and entertained at Omoa by "El Dorado" himself (1531); and the journeys of Orellana (1540-1541), who passed down the Rio Napo to the valley of the Amazon; that of Philip von Hutten (1541-1545), who led an exploring party from Coro on the coast of Caracas; and of Gonzalo Ximenes de Quesada (1569), who started from Santa Fe de Bogota.
Meanwhile the name of El Dorado came to be used metaphorically of any place where wealth could be rapidly acquired.
In 1859 a winter mining party coming upon the sunny valley near the present Manitou, near the old Fontaine-qui-Bouille, settled "El Dorado."
The El Dorado promised by communism remained a mirage until the whole edifice collapsed like the proverbial house of cards.
