Zuni-Cibola Complex - Cibola in Fiction and Popular Culture

Cibola in Fiction and Popular Culture

• In the Stephen King book The Stand, Trashcan Man is instructed by Randall Flagg to meet him in Cibola, which is later revealed to be Las Vegas.
• Scrooge McDuck and his nephews discover the seven cities in the comic "The Seven Cities of Cibola" by Carl Barks.
• Scott O'Dell's 1966 book The King's Fifth refers to seven cities of gold in the land of Cíbola.
  • The book in its turn inspired the 1980s Japanese/French animated children's series The Mysterious Cities of Gold.
• The Vertigo/DC comic book series Jack of Fables recently began a storyline called "Americana" which relates the efforts of Jack of the Tales in entering Cíbola (issue 17, January 08 cover date).
• Cíbola was discovered beneath Mount Rushmore in National Treasure: Book of Secrets, a 2007 film starring Nicolas Cage and Diane Kruger.
• David Moles' 2010 alternate history novella, Seven Cities of Gold, draws upon the legend of Cibola to set the stage for cultural and religious conflict.
• Edward Abbey's autobiographical recount of his summer as a park ranger at Arches National Park, Desert Solitaire, contains a reference to "seven modern cities of Cibola" including Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff.
• The quest for Cibola was in an episode of the U.S. television series "Daniel Boone" with Fess Parker.
• There is an arc in the Italian Western/Science Fiction comic Zagor about seven cities of gold which were abandoned and were remnants of an ancient highly developed civilization (Zagor #355-357, ITA/CRO: "Le sette città di Cibola" / "Sedam gradova Cibole").
• Fictional romance author Kristin Hannah wrote "The Enchantment" which is a story of the quest for the legendary lost city of Cibola in the late 1800s. (1992)
• Progressive rock band Rush released a song "Seven Cities of Gold" on album "Clockwork Angels" on June 12, 2012. The liner notes refer to Cíbola.
• The video game Uncharted: Golden Abyss uses Quivira (one of the Seven Cities of Gold) as a final destination for the quest. The game also gives an explanation why Marcos de Niza lied about the location of the cities even though he really did find them.