christopher columbus 4 voyages map

• History Classics
• Your Profile
• Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window)
• This Day In History
• History Podcasts
• History Vault

Christopher Columbus

By: History.com Editors

Updated: August 11, 2023 | Original: November 9, 2009

The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did. Instead, he stumbled upon the Americas. Though he did not “discover” the so-called New World—millions of people already lived there—his journeys marked the beginning of centuries of exploration and colonization of North and South America.

Christopher Columbus and the Age of Discovery

During the 15th and 16th centuries, leaders of several European nations sponsored expeditions abroad in the hope that explorers would find great wealth and vast undiscovered lands. The Portuguese were the earliest participants in this “ Age of Discovery ,” also known as “ Age of Exploration .”

Starting in about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped along the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods as well as enslaved people from Asia and Africa to Europe.

Did you know? Christopher Columbus was not the first person to propose that a person could reach Asia by sailing west from Europe. In fact, scholars argue that the idea is almost as old as the idea that the Earth is round. (That is, it dates back to early Rome.)

Other European nations, particularly Spain, were eager to share in the seemingly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end of the 15th century, Spain’s “ Reconquista ”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom after centuries of war—was complete, and the nation turned its attention to exploration and conquest in other areas of the world.

The Voyages of Christopher Columbus: Timeline

• 1451 Columbus is born
• 1492–1493 Columbus sails to the Americas
• 1493–1496 Columbus returns to Hispaniola
• 1498–1500 Columbus seeks a strait to India
• 1502–1504 Columbus's last voyage
• 1506 Columbus dies

Christopher Columbus is born in the Republic of Genoa. He begins sailing in his teens and survives a shipwreck off the coast of Portugal in 1476. In 1484, he seeks aid from Portugal’s King John II for a voyage to cross the Atlantic Ocean and reach Asia from the east, but the king declines to fund it.

After securing funding from Spain’s King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella, Columbus makes his first voyage to the Americas with three ships—the Niña , the Pinta and the Santa Maria . In October 1492, his expedition makes landfall in the modern-day country of The Bahamas. Columbus establishes a settlement on the island of Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

In November 1943, Columbus returns to the settlement on Hispaniola to find the Europeans he left there dead. During this second voyage, which lasts over two years, Columbus’ expedition establishes an “encomienda” system. Under this system, Spanish subjects seize land and force Native people to work on it. More

In the summer of 1498, Columbus—still believing he’s reached Asia from the east—sets out on this third voyage with the goal of finding a strait from present-day Cuba to India. He makes his first landfall in South America and plants a Spanish flag in present-day Venezuela. After failing to find the strait, he returns to Hispaniola, where Spanish authorities arrest him for the brutal way he runs the colony there. In 1500, Columbus returns to Spain in chains. More

The Spanish government strips Columbus of his titles but still frees him and finances one last voyage , although it forbids him return to Hispaniola. Still in search of a strait to India, Columbus makes it as far as modern-day Panama, which straddles the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In his return journey, his ships become beached in present-day Jamaica and he and his crew live as castaways for a year before rescue. More

On May 20, 1506, Columbus dies in Valladolid, Spain at age 54, still asserting that he reached the eastern part of Asia by sailing across the Atlantic. Despite the fact that the Spanish government pays him a tenth of the gold he looted in the Americas, Columbus spends the last part of his life petitioning the crown for more recognition.

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher Columbus, the son of a wool merchant, is believed to have been born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a merchant ship. He remained at sea until 1476, when pirates attacked his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, but the young Columbus floated to shore on a scrap of wood and made his way to Lisbon, where he eventually studied mathematics, astronomy, cartography and navigation. He also began to hatch the plan that would change the world forever.

Columbus’ Quest for Gold

On Christopher Columbus’s second voyage to the Americas, he enslaved the Indigenous people and forced them to mine for gold.

Columbus’ Mutinous Crew

After 60 days and no sign of their destination, Columbus’ doubtful crew wanted to turn back.

How Early Humans First Reached the Americas: 3 Theories

How and when did humans first set foot in North America? Here are three theories.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of the 15th century, it was nearly impossible to reach Asia from Europe by land. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were difficult to avoid. Portuguese explorers solved this problem by taking to the sea: They sailed south along the West African coast and around the Cape of Good Hope.

But Columbus had a different idea: Why not sail west across the Atlantic instead of around the massive African continent? The young navigator’s logic was sound, but his math was faulty. He argued (incorrectly) that the circumference of the Earth was much smaller than his contemporaries believed it was; accordingly, he believed that the journey by boat from Europe to Asia should be not only possible, but comparatively easy via an as-yet undiscovered Northwest Passage . 

He presented his plan to officials in Portugal and England, but it was not until 1492 that he found a sympathetic audience: the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile .

Columbus wanted fame and fortune. Ferdinand and Isabella wanted the same, along with the opportunity to export Catholicism to lands across the globe. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was equally enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with the Spanish rulers promised that he could keep 10 percent of whatever riches he found, along with a noble title and the governorship of any lands he should encounter.

Exploration of North America

The Vikings Discover the New World The first attempt by Europeans to colonize the New World occurred around 1000 A.D. when the Vikings sailed from the British Isles to Greenland, established a colony and then moved on to Labrador, the Baffin Islands and finally Newfoundland. There they established a colony named Vineland (meaning fertile region) […]

The Viking Explorer Who Beat Columbus to America

Leif Eriksson Day commemorates the Norse explorer believed to have led the first European expedition to North America.

Christopher Columbus Never Set Out to Prove the Earth was Round

Humans have known the earth is round for thousands of years.

Where Did Columbus' Ships, Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria, Land?

On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew set sail from Spain in three ships: the Niña , the Pinta and the Santa Maria . On October 12, the ships made landfall—not in the East Indies, as Columbus assumed, but on one of the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Columbus sailed from island to island in what we now know as the Caribbean, looking for the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and merchandise whatsoever” that he had promised to his Spanish patrons, but he did not find much. In January 1493, leaving several dozen men behind in a makeshift settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he left for Spain.

He kept a detailed diary during his first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s journal was written between August 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492 and mentions everything from the wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, to the weather to the moods of his crew. More troublingly, it also recorded his initial impressions of the local people and his argument for why they should be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”

Columbus gifted the journal to Isabella upon his return.

10 Things You May Not Know About Christopher Columbus

Check out 10 things you may not know about the Genoese explorer who sailed the ocean blue in 1492.

The Ships of Christopher Columbus Were Sleek, Fast—and Cramped

Two of Christopher Columbus’ ships were so small that men had no refuge to sleep and poor food storage led to wormy meals.

Christopher Columbus: How The Explorer’s Legend Grew—and Then Drew Fire

Columbus's famed voyage to the New World was celebrated by Italian‑Americans, in particular, as a pathway to their own acceptance in America.

Christopher Columbus's Later Voyages

About six months later, in September 1493, Columbus returned to the Americas. He found the Hispaniola settlement destroyed and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind to rebuild, along with part of his ships’ crew and hundreds of enslaved indigenous people.

Then he headed west to continue his mostly fruitless search for gold and other goods. His group now included a large number of indigenous people the Europeans had enslaved. In lieu of the material riches he had promised the Spanish monarchs, he sent some 500 enslaved people to Queen Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people Columbus “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could not be enslaved—and she promptly and sternly returned the explorer’s gift.

In May 1498, Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic for the third time. He visited Trinidad and the South American mainland before returning to the ill-fated Hispaniola settlement, where the colonists had staged a bloody revolt against the Columbus brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Conditions were so bad that Spanish authorities had to send a new governor to take over.

Meanwhile, the native Taino population, forced to search for gold and to work on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after Columbus landed, only a few hundred of what may have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was arrested and returned to Spain in chains. 

In 1502, cleared of the most serious charges but stripped of his noble titles, the aging Columbus persuaded the Spanish crown to pay for one last trip across the Atlantic. This time, Columbus made it all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where he had to abandon two of his four ships after damage from storms and hostile natives. Empty-handed, the explorer returned to Spain, where he died in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus did not “discover” the Americas, nor was he even the first European to visit the “New World.” (Viking explorer Leif Erikson had sailed to Greenland and Newfoundland in the 11th century.)

However, his journey kicked off centuries of exploration and exploitation on the American continents. The Columbian Exchange transferred people, animals, food and disease across cultures. Old World wheat became an American food staple. African coffee and Asian sugar cane became cash crops for Latin America, while American foods like corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced into European diets. 

Today, Columbus has a controversial legacy —he is remembered as a daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, yet his actions also unleashed changes that would eventually devastate the native populations he and his fellow explorers encountered.

HISTORY Vault: Columbus the Lost Voyage

Ten years after his 1492 voyage, Columbus, awaiting the gallows on criminal charges in a Caribbean prison, plotted a treacherous final voyage to restore his reputation.

Sign up for Inside History

Get HISTORY’s most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week.

By submitting your information, you agree to receive emails from HISTORY and A+E Networks. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States.

More details : Privacy Notice | Terms of Use | Contact Us

The Ages of Exploration

Christopher columbus, age of discovery.

Quick Facts:

He is credited for discovering the Americas in 1492, although we know today people were there long before him; his real achievement was that he opened the door for more exploration to a New World.

Name : Christopher Columbus [Kri-stə-fər] [Kə-luhm-bəs]

Birth/Death : 1451 - 1506

Nationality : Italian

Birthplace : Genoa, Italy

Christopher Columbus leaving Palos, Spain

Christopher Columbus aboard the "Santa Maria" leaving Palos, Spain on his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The Mariners' Museum 1933.0746.000001

Introduction We know that In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. But what did he actually discover? Christopher Columbus (also known as (Cristoforo Colombo [Italian]; Cristóbal Colón [Spanish]) was an Italian explorer credited with the “discovery” of the Americas. The purpose for his voyages was to find a passage to Asia by sailing west. Never actually accomplishing this mission, his explorations mostly included the Caribbean and parts of Central and South America, all of which were already inhabited by Native groups.

Biography Early Life Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, part of present-day Italy, in 1451. His parents’ names were Dominico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa. He had three brothers: Bartholomew, Giovanni, and Giacomo; and a sister named Bianchinetta. Christopher became an apprentice in his father’s wool weaving business, but he also studied mapmaking and sailing as well. He eventually left his father’s business to join the Genoese fleet and sail on the Mediterranean Sea. 1 After one of his ships wrecked off the coast of Portugal, he decided to remain there with his younger brother Bartholomew where he worked as a cartographer (mapmaker) and bookseller. Here, he married Doña Felipa Perestrello e Moniz and had two sons Diego and Fernando.

Christopher Columbus owned a copy of Marco Polo’s famous book, and it gave him a love for exploration. In the mid 15th century, Portugal was desperately trying to find a faster trade route to Asia. Exotic goods such as spices, ivory, silk, and gems were popular items of trade. However, Europeans often had to travel through the Middle East to reach Asia. At this time, Muslim nations imposed high taxes on European travels crossing through. 2 This made it both difficult and expensive to reach Asia. There were rumors from other sailors that Asia could be reached by sailing west. Hearing this, Christopher Columbus decided to try and make this revolutionary journey himself. First, he needed ships and supplies, which required money that he did not have. He went to King John of Portugal who turned him down. He then went to the rulers of England, and France. Each declined his request for funding. After seven years of trying, he was finally sponsored by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

Voyages Principal Voyage Columbus’ voyage departed in August of 1492 with 87 men sailing on three ships: the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María. Columbus commanded the Santa María, while the Niña was led by Vicente Yanez Pinzon and the Pinta by Martin Pinzon. 3 This was the first of his four trips. He headed west from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean. On October 12 land was sighted. He gave the first island he landed on the name San Salvador, although the native population called it Guanahani. 4 Columbus believed that he was in Asia, but was actually in the Caribbean. He even proposed that the island of Cuba was a part of China. Since he thought he was in the Indies, he called the native people “Indians.” In several letters he wrote back to Spain, he described the landscape and his encounters with the natives. He continued sailing throughout the Caribbean and named many islands he encountered after his ship, king, and queen: La Isla de Santa María de Concepción, Fernandina, and Isabella.

It is hard to determine specifically which islands Columbus visited on this voyage. His descriptions of the native peoples, geography, and plant life do give us some clues though. One place we do know he stopped was in present-day Haiti. He named the island Hispaniola. Hispaniola today includes both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In January of 1493, Columbus sailed back to Europe to report what he found. Due to rough seas, he was forced to land in Portugal, an unfortunate event for Columbus. With relations between Spain and Portugal strained during this time, Ferdinand and Isabella suspected that Columbus was taking valuable information or maybe goods to Portugal, the country he had lived in for several years. Those who stood against Columbus would later use this as an argument against him. Eventually, Columbus was allowed to return to Spain bringing with him tobacco, turkey, and some new spices. He also brought with him several natives of the islands, of whom Queen Isabella grew very fond.

Subsequent Voyages Columbus took three other similar trips to this region. His second voyage in 1493 carried a large fleet with the intention of conquering the native populations and establishing colonies. At one point, the natives attacked and killed the settlers left at Fort Navidad. Over time the colonists enslaved many of the natives, sending some to Europe and using many to mine gold for the Spanish settlers in the Caribbean. The third trip was to explore more of the islands and mainland South America further. Columbus was appointed the governor of Hispaniola, but the colonists, upset with Columbus’ leadership appealed to the rulers of Spain, who sent a new governor: Francisco de Bobadilla. Columbus was taken prisoner on board a ship and sent back to Spain.

On his fourth and final journey west in 1502 Columbus’s goal was to find the “Strait of Malacca,” to try to find India. But a hurricane, then being denied entrance to Hispaniola, and then another storm made this an unfortunate trip. His ship was so badly damaged that he and his crew were stranded on Jamaica for two years until help from Hispaniola finally arrived. In 1504, Columbus and his men were taken back to Spain .

Later Years and Death Columbus reached Spain in November 1504. He was not in good health. He spent much of the last of his life writing letters to obtain the percentage of wealth overdue to be paid to him, and trying to re-attain his governorship status, but was continually denied both. Columbus died at Valladolid on May 20, 1506, due to illness and old age. Even until death, he still firmly believed that he had traveled to the eastern part of Asia.

Legacy Columbus never made it to Asia, nor did he truly discover America. His “re-discovery,” however, inspired a new era of exploration of the American continents by Europeans. Perhaps his greatest contribution was that his voyages opened an exchange of goods between Europe and the Americas both during and long after his journeys. 5 Despite modern criticism of his treatment of the native peoples there is no denying that his expeditions changed both Europe and America. Columbus day was made a federal holiday in 1971. It is recognized on the second Monday of October.

• Fergus Fleming, Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration (New York: Grove Press, 2004), 30.
• Fleming, Off the Map , 30
• William D. Phillips and Carla Rahn Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 142-143.
• Phillips and Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus , 155.
• Robin S. Doak, Christopher Columbus: Explorer of the New World (Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2005), 92.
• The Mariners' Educational Programs
• Bibliography

Account Options

Category : Maps of voyages by Christopher Columbus

Media in category "maps of voyages by christopher columbus".

The following 76 files are in this category, out of 76 total.

• Maps of voyages
• Christopher Columbus
• Maps showing 15th-century history
• Maps showing 16th-century history
• North America in the 15th century
• North America in the 16th century
• Maps of Spanish trade routes
• Maps of crossings of the Atlantic Ocean
• Atlantic Ocean in the 15th century
• Atlantic Ocean in the 16th century
• Uses of Wikidata Infobox
• Uses of Wikidata Infobox with no image

Navigation menu

• Customer Reviews
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS' FOURTH VOYAGE

• Become a teacher

Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1506)

Episode #3 of the course “Europe’s greatest explorers”

“It was ordained that I should not go by land to the eastward, by which way it was the custom to go, but by way of the west, by which down to this day we do not know certainly that anyone has passed. . . .” 

– Christopher Columbus, 1492

Christopher Columbus was an experienced merchant sailor and navigator from Genoa who led the first European trans-Atlantic sea voyage in 1492. He has historically been credited with “discovering” America, although today’s historians argue a new understanding of the global impact of Columbus’ voyage.

Not much is known about Christopher Columbus’ life growing up, but by 1477, he and his brother had established themselves as merchant sailors based out of Lisbon, Portugal. Columbus sailed to Ireland, Iceland, West Africa, and around Europe. Marco Polo’s accounts of the riches of China and India inspired Columbus to seek a direct westward-bound route. Contrary to modern belief, the educated noble class of Columbus’ day did not think that the Earth was flat. Columbus’ journey was instead motivated by a drive to find a direct route to India without sailing around Africa.

The routes of the four Voyages of Christopher Columbus

In 1484, Columbus began to solicit funding for a westbound voyage from King John II of Portugal, who declined to finance the expedition. Columbus traveled to Spain for an audience with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1486 but was rejected at least twice before they agreed to sponsor his journey in 1492.

Sailing from the coast of Portugal, Columbus and his crew were the first Europeans to encounter islands in the Caribbean Sea. When he arrived in the Caribbean, he mistakenly believed he was in the western part of India, therefore calling the region the “West Indies” and coining the misnomer of “Indians” for the indigenous people.

Columbus Before the Queen by Emanuel Leutze, 1843

The indigenous people in the Caribbean included the Eastern, Western, and Classic Tainos; the Island-Caribs; and the Guanahatabeyes. The Tainos had no concept of slavery, and they placed a high value in battle on disarming an enemy and sparing his life. It was because they did not kill their enemies that Columbus found them “weak” and “easy to rule.” He had been seeking the gold and rich spices of India and found none of them in the Caribbean, so he loaded his ships with human cargo and returned to Spain with reports of the manual labor that could be found in the “New World.”

Christopher Columbus and his crew landed in the Bahamas in October, 1492

Columbus ultimately sailed four voyages across the Atlantic, visiting modern-day Jamaica, Venezuela, Panamá, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Bahamas, and the Dominican Republic. Columbus established settlements that grew into colonies, where he acted as governor. He used brutal conversion methods and oppressive tactics to stamp out rebellions from indigenous inhabitants before being relieved of his governorship.

Columbus returned to Spain to demand additional compensation but succumbed to a number of illnesses that plagued him in the final decade of his life. Christopher Columbus died in Spain in 1506 and was initially buried in Seville. His remains were later moved to the Dominican Republic, then to Cuba, before being returned to Spain. The ashes interred in Seville have been confirmed as Columbus’, but there remains some dispute over whether the remains in the Dominican Republic are also from Columbus.

Recommended book

Share with friends

The Third Voyage of Christopher Columbus

Artem Dunaev / EyeEm / Getty Images 

• History Before Columbus
• Colonialism and Imperialism
• Caribbean History
• Central American History
• South American History
• Mexican History
• American History
• African American History
• African History
• Ancient History and Culture
• Asian History
• European History
• Medieval & Renaissance History
• Military History
• The 20th Century
• Women's History
• Ph.D., Spanish, Ohio State University
• M.A., Spanish, University of Montana
• B.A., Spanish, Penn State University

After his famous 1492 voyage of discovery , Christopher Columbus was commissioned to return a second time, which he did with a large-scale colonization effort which departed from Spain in 1493. Although the second journey had many problems, it was considered successful because a settlement was founded: it would eventually become Santo Domingo , capital of the present-day Dominican Republic. Columbus served as governor during his stay in the islands. The settlement needed supplies, however, so Columbus returned to Spain in 1496.

Preparations for the Third Voyage

Columbus reported to the crown upon his return from the New World. He was dismayed to learn that his patrons, Ferdinand and Isabella , would not allow enslaved people from the newly discovered lands to be used as payment. As he had found little gold or precious commodities for which to trade, he had been counting on selling enslaved people to make his voyages lucrative. The King and Queen of Spain allowed Columbus to organize a third trip to the New World with the goal of resupplying the colonists and continuing the search for a new trade route to the Orient.

The Fleet Splits

Upon departure from Spain in May of 1498, Columbus split his fleet of six ships: three would make for Hispaniola immediately to bring desperately needed supplies, while the other three would aim for points south of the already explored Caribbean to search for more land and perhaps even the route to the Orient that Columbus still believed to be there. Columbus himself captained the latter ships, being at heart an explorer and not a governor.

Doldrums and Trinidad

Columbus’ bad luck on the third voyage began almost immediately. After making slow progress from Spain, his fleet hit the doldrums, which is a calm, hot stretch of ocean with little or no wind. Columbus and his men spent several days battling heat and thirst with no wind to propel their ships. After a while, the wind returned and they were able to continue. Columbus veered to the north, because the ships were low on water and he wanted to resupply in the familiar Caribbean. On July 31, they sighted an island, which Columbus named Trinidad. They were able to resupply there and continue exploring.

Sighting South America

For the first two weeks of August 1498, Columbus and his small fleet explored the Gulf of Paria, which separates Trinidad from mainland South America. In the process of this exploration, they discovered the Island of Margarita as well as several smaller islands. They also discovered the mouth of the Orinoco River. Such a mighty freshwater river could only be found on a continent, not an island, and the increasingly religious Columbus concluded that he had found the site of the Garden of Eden. Columbus fell ill around this time and ordered the fleet to head to Hispaniola, which they reached on August 19.

Back in Hispaniola

In the roughly two years since Columbus had been gone, the settlement on Hispaniola had seen some rough times. Supplies and tempers were short and the vast wealth that Columbus had promised settlers while arranging the second voyage had failed to appear. Columbus had been a poor governor during his brief tenure (1494–1496) and the colonists were not happy to see him. The settlers complained bitterly, and Columbus had to hang a few of them in order to stabilize the situation. Realizing that he needed help governing the unruly and hungry settlers, Columbus sent to Spain for assistance. It was also here where Antonio de Montesinos is remembered to have given an impassioned and impactful sermon.

Francisco de Bobadilla

Responding to rumors of strife and poor governance on the part of Columbus and his brothers, the Spanish crown sent Francisco de Bobadilla to Hispaniola in 1500. Bobadilla was a nobleman and a knight of the Calatrava order, and he was given broad powers by the Spanish crown, superseding those of Colombus. The crown needed to rein in the unpredictable Colombus and his brothers, who in addition to being tyrannical governors were also suspected of improperly gathering wealth. In 2005, a document was found in the Spanish archives: it contains first-hand accounts of the abuses of Columbus and his brothers.

Columbus Imprisoned

Bobadilla arrived in August 1500, with 500 men and a handful of native people that Columbus had brought to Spain on a previous voyage to enslave; they were to be freed by royal decree. Bobadilla found the situation as bad as he had heard. Columbus and Bobadilla clashed: because there was little love for Columbus among the settlers, Bobadilla was able to clap him and his brothers in chains and throw them in a dungeon. In October 1500, the three Columbus brothers were sent back to Spain, still in shackles. From getting stuck in the doldrums to being shipped back to Spain as a prisoner, Columbus’ Third Voyage was a fiasco.

Aftermath and Importance

Back in Spain, Columbus was able to talk his way out of trouble: he and his brothers were freed after spending only a few weeks in prison.

After the first voyage, Columbus had been granted a series of important titles and concessions. He was appointed Governor and Viceroy of the newly discovered lands and was given the title of Admiral, which would pass to his heirs. By 1500, the Spanish crown was beginning to regret this decision, as Columbus had proven to be a very poor governor and the lands he had discovered had the potential to be extremely lucrative. If the terms of his original contract were honored, the Columbus family would eventually siphon off a great deal of wealth from the crown.

Although he was freed from prison and most of his lands and wealth were restored, this incident gave the crown the excuse they needed to strip Columbus of some of the costly concessions that they had originally agreed to. Gone were the positions of Governor and Viceroy and the profits were reduced as well. Columbus’ children later fought for the privileges conceded to Columbus with mixed success, and legal wrangling between the Spanish crown and the Columbus family over these rights would continue for some time. Columbus’ son Diego would eventually serve for a time as Governor of Hispaniola due to the terms of these agreements.

The disaster that was the third voyage essentially brought to a close the Columbus Era in the New World. While other explorers, such as Amerigo Vespucci , believed that Columbus had found previously unknown lands, he stubbornly held to the claim that he had found the eastern edge of Asia and that he would soon find the markets of India, China, and Japan. Although many at court believed Columbus to be mad, he was able to put together a fourth voyage , which if anything was a bigger disaster than the third one.

The fall of Columbus and his family in the New World created a power vacuum, and the King and Queen of Spain quickly filled it with Nicolás de Ovando, a Spanish nobleman who was appointed governor. Ovando was a cruel but effective governor who ruthlessly wiped out native settlements and continued the exploration of the New World, setting the stage for the Age of Conquest.

Herring, Hubert. A History of Latin America From the Beginnings to the Present. . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962

Thomas, Hugh. Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan. New York: Random House, 2005.

• 10 Facts About Christopher Columbus
• The Truth About Christopher Columbus
• Biography of Christopher Columbus
• The Fourth Voyage of Christopher Columbus
• Where Are the Remains of Christopher Columbus?
• The History of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
• Ponce de Leon and the Fountain of Youth
• Biography of Juan Ponce de León, Conquistador
• Timeline of Hernan Cortes' Conquest of the Aztecs
• Biography of Diego Velazquez de Cuellar, Conquistador
• Biography of Bartolomé de Las Casas, Spanish Colonist
• Biography and Legacy of Ferdinand Magellan
• The Florida Expeditions of Ponce de Leon
• Wars in Latin, South American History
• 10 Facts About the Spanish Conquistadors
• The History of Venezuela

Christopher Columbus

From the Archives: The Saga of Chris Kong

Editor’s note: Think the Christopher Columbus statue at City Hall is  problematic these days ? Oh, it could have been much, much worse if a devoted band of locals in the mid 1990s had succeeded in their bizarre quest to build a 500-ton monument to the Italian explorer. In 1994,  Columbus Monthly  explored the saga of the statue—nicknamed "Chris Kong"— which eventually ended up in Puerto Rico . 

This is the story of a statute that won’t go away.

The people—as far as anybody knows don't want it. The arts community doesn't want it. The politically correct community doesn't want it and the movers and shakers, who actually could make it come if they did want it, don't want it either. 

Nobody's offered a dime, not to build it here, and not to maintain it here. Even the mayor doesn't want it. 

Still, the statue—a 311-foot, 500-ton bronze Russian statue of Christopher Columbus—keeps coming. 

At least that's the story according to Columbus' New World Foundation, as grimly determined a bunch of volunteers as this city ever has seen. In mid February, after even Mayor Greg Lashutka had thrown cold water on the statue project, the colossus still was improbably, inexorably lumbering its way toward the Whittier Street peninsula. 

"We're optimistic," said group spokeswoman and Wm. Graystone Winery owner Jane Butler then. There was news; there always is with the statue. The group just had nailed down enough warehouse space to house the statue's 1,500 parts. The 14 foot-tall bronze head would be shipped up to Columbus from Fort Lauderdale either in March or April, Butler said. The rest of the statue would be Columbus-bound as soon as the Russian ports thawed around St. Petersburg. 

The statue, in other words, still was coming, despite the derision, despite the complete lack of visible means of support, either for the $14 million to $25 million cost of erecting it or the ongoing costs of maintaining it. 

What's going on here? How did an idea as bizarre as a skyscraper-sized statue of Christopher Columbus ever take hold in the first place? How has it held on so long ?  How has it, at various times, at least appeared to garner the support of the mayor, a county commissioner, the governor, the Chamber of Commerce? 

Why won't it go away ? 

Everybody laughed when the statue—The New World Monument—first came to Columbus's attention last year. The statue was, well ... kitschy. Even a stunningly beautiful 311-foot Christopher Columbus would be a little odd. This one, designed by Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli, was not necessarily stunningly beautiful.

"It looks like some kind of lamp base from the 1930s to me,” says sculptor and Ohio State University art professor emeritus David Black.

"It's a monstrous piece of junk,” says Sid Chafetz, also an emeritus Ohio State art professor. 

"Horrendous," says art consultant Susan Saxbe, of Winning Images. And the public, to judge from the letters to the editor, by and large agreed. In short order, the so-called New World Monument had earned itself a few nicknames. Big Chris. Chris Kong. 

Whatever you called it, it was going to bring us money. Statue backers were dead serious. Thousands, no, tens of thousands of cars per week would pass through the intersection of 1-70 and 1-71, get off and take a look. They'd buy our gas, eat our food. The colossus would be our Statue of Liberty, our St. Louis Arch. And it was a gift, an  international  gift—a gift from Russia to the United States of America. 

And we could have it here, right down on the city impound lot. 

How did we get so lucky ?  The story, according to the official version, the one written up glowingly in the New World Monument brochures, began more than six years ago, as relations between the United States and the then Soviet Union began to thaw. The statue was Zurab Tsereteli's idea and it was intended to be, like the Statue of Liberty, a gift of state. 

Tsereteli apparently is rich and well connected. He knows former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev and current Russian President Boris Yeltsin. And he's created such gifts of state before. Tsereteli's 30-foot statue of St. George slaying the dragon stands outside the United Nations building; it was given by the Soviet Union to commemorate a disarmament agreement. 

Tsereteli, now 60, spent the better part of his career churning out the kinds of statues totalitarian governments love. He did big Lenins, back when big Lenins were what you got paid for. 

In fact, “You can almost see all the melted Lenins that went into this," says OSU's Black of the sculpture Tsereteli now wants to give to us. 

Big Lenins aren't much in demand anymore, which is something to remember when hearing the official history of Tsereteli's gift. The New World Monument was designed and cast at a time when Soviet bronze foundries needed the work. A second thing to remember is this: The lines between state projects and private enterprise in Russia have become a little blurred during the political changes of the past few years. What may have been a state project once isn't necessarily one now. 

Tsereteli built the statue using state paid workers and state-supplied materials, but the state, as far as anyone can tell, is out of the picture now. And Tsereteli stands to make a profit off of it—one of the most underreported facts of the entire statue saga.

It's a scenario, according to Ohio State University associate professor of Slavic and East European languages George Kalbouss, that has been playing out ever since the Soviet Union's collapse. Russians "have been constantly trying to unload on the Western world various loser projects started before the collapse,” Kalbouss wrote in a letter to the  Dispatch.  "This statue is one of them." 

“They just started melting a lot of Lenins when the Soviet Union fell,” Kalbouss says. “They have these foundries. They need to keep people at work. Secretly, I think this was started as another statue and they just changed the head." 

In city after city in the U.S., says Kalbouss, Russians have come bearing gifts, always aided by a group of well-meaning local volunteers. And there is always, he says, something else going on—some kind of investment opportunity, some kind of business deal, some kind of agenda. 

The same goes for Tsereteli's gift—despite the patina of official sanctioning it brings with it.

The major proof of that sanctioning is an event that happened six years ago. According to Butler, and to a spokesman for the now-dead Florida New World Monument Foundation, former President George Bush and former USSR President Mikhail Gorbachey met in Tsereteli's studio to choose from among three designs for what would be a major international gift. 

The statue would be, the magazine  Russian Life  gushed, a continuation of the "beautiful tradition that began with the presentation of the Statue of Liberty to the United States by France. This will be a gift from Russia to America."

The magazine—formerly S oviet Life —also reported that the statue enjoyed the support of President Bill Clinton, 

"The president promised me all his support and asked me many questions about the unique engineering problems posed by the monument's assembly," Tsereteli told that magazine.

It's true there's a photo of Clinton meeting Tsereteli, but what kind of support Clinton promised is anybody's guess. The White House press office hadn't heard of the statue when we inquired, and didn't know where to start asking. And if statue backers thought Clinton meant money, they haven't nailed that down yet. U.S. Congresswoman Deb Pryce received a letter from statue backers in November, saying they'd written Clinton "looking for guidance as to what involvement is appropriate at the federal level," for what the group called "a project of national importance to Russia.” The letter hasn't borne fruit yet. 

So what's in it for Tsereteli?  

The sculptor's generosity throughout the project has been one of the most baffling parts of the statue saga to date. According to Max Goldberg, former director of the now-defunct foundation originally assigned the task of finding the statue a home, Tsereteli spent $500,000 of his own money just getting the statue parts cast and stored, beyond the cost of the state workers and state materials. 

There have been travel costs: Public officials from Columbus and Florida, where the statue originally was headed, have been flown back and forth to Moscow and St. Petersburg, supposedly at Tsereteli's expense. (At least one of those trips may have been funded by the Russian state arts council, of which Tsereteli is president.) Tsereteli has been here, as have his people.  

There have been marketing costs: Some corporate types around Columbus got mini-statues and hard-bound coffeetable books written in Russian. (The mini-Chris is used as punishment at one local company: Screw up and he'll be on your desk in the morning.) 

It isn't over. Tsereteli will pay the costs of shipping the statue's parts here. And, at least according to the latest plan announced by statue proponent Jane Butler, he and some Russian investor friends even may pay the estimated $14 million to $25 million needed to pụt the statue together here. 

Why ?  The profits. Tsereteli the sculptor is also Tsereteli the entrepreneur, and he stands to make money. If the statue goes up in the United States and draws tourists, Tsereteli and friends will get every dime those tourists spend on statue related mugs and T-shirts and souvenirs. It's in the contract. 

The statue would be owned and operated by a combination of a nonprofit corporation (Butler's group) and a for-profit corporation, headed by Tsereteli. There is no indication that those revenues would go to anybody but Tsereteli and his investment partnership, despite the state workers and state bronze that went into the statue.

As it's become increasingly clear that Tsereteli's Chris isn't going to get front money from anybody here, Tsereteli's share of the statue's future revenues has gotten bigger. By February, Butler's group and Tsereteli were talking about putting in an IMAX theater and throwing those revenues to Tsereteli, and charging admission for the statue's "educational center" and turning over those revenues as well.

"Now, please he l p me out here," says Butler, when explaining the evolving profit relationship. "It's a real typical type of scenario to have a nonprofit foundation affiliated with a for-profit part of the project. It's what they did with the St. Louis Arch." 

Not quite, according to Arch Superintendent Gary Easton. The St. Louis Peace Arch is run by a combination of the National Park Service and a nonprofit corporation, set up to collect gift shop revenues and funnel them into operation and maintenance of the arch. (The feds kick in about $3 million a year on top of that.) 

That Tsereteli stands to make some bucks off his international gift goes a long way toward explaining the relentless engine that keeps driving it here.

It also explains why it originally was headed somewhere else.

Pretend you're Zurab Tsereteli. 

You've got a giant statue that also is a potentially lucrative investment opportunity dependent on tourists. You look for a city with some tourists in it. Tsereteli's first choice, according to at least one news account, was New York City—which already had a giant statue and didn't need another one. Tsereteli's second choice was Miami. It had tourists, just like New York. And it had a very wealthy corporate raider named Bennet LeBow, who'd done some business in Russia, had met Tsereteli and was willing to invest $5 million to get the ball rolling. 

LeBow formed the first New World Monument Foundation in Miami and hired Goldberg away from the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus operation to run it. (Goldberg now works for Walt Disney's video company.) 

The statue's promoters used the same lines in Miami that they later would use here—the Statue of Liberty and the St. Louis Peace Arch, the importance of being chosen to host an international gift from our new friends in Russia, the chance of big money. There, like here, they handled the project as if it were a done deal. 

They also got opposition, especially from the  Miami Herald a rt critic. “So far," wrote the critic, “this is what they're thinking about: a really big statue, a tourist destination, a post-Communist Russian / American joint venture, moneymoneymoney." 

The critic also called the statue "as graceless as a herd of brontosaurs," and said it looked like an "exploded hydrant." 

The art critic didn't kill the statue's welcome in Miami. A whole lot of other things did. There was a little squawking about whether Columbus was politically correct, and a whole lot of grumbling about the first-choice site. The statue was to stand on state-owned land off the shore. The folks living on that shore, whose view would change dramatically, weren't happy. 

And there was that money problem. Even though LeBow had promised $5 million of his own, the Florida statue backers didn't raise the money they needed. 

As things got dicey in Miami, Fort Lauderdale took a stab at it, only to hit a tidal wave of taxpayer outrage when statue backers showed up at a fund-raising meeting talking about a public bond issue, according to news reports. 

It was in the middle of all this that a Columbus woman named Karen Hadley called Max Goldberg. 

Was there a chance , an y chance, that somebody might choose Columbus, Ohio, instead?

Now you know, you just  kno w, that Zurab Tsereteli had to cringe a little. No ocean for his colossus, no major tourist filled city, no Miami-sized stream of souvenir revenue. 

Instead, a site on an auto impound lot, facing a muddy and not very b i g river, in a city he'd probably never heard of before.  

It was better than nothing. Tsereteli bit.

Hadley's interest started with a January 1993  Columbus Dispatch  story about the statue and its problems. Someone read it to Hadley, who is blind. The woman who decided Columbus needed Tsereteli's mega-Chris, the woman who started everything rolling, never actually has seen a picture of it. 

Hadley called the  Dispatch.  Then she called Goldberg and the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber hooked her up with a few people, including Ralph Frasco, former president of North American Aeroflot, and Jane Butler, the Graystone Winery owner who has become the project's chief spokeswoman. A committee was born.

As far as the larger public was concerned, it was a joke—at least at first. But the statue committee in general, and Jane Butler specifically, proved themselves more than capable of keeping the statue project in the public eye. 

In February, Goldberg came to Columbus. Statue backers here still were considering a handful of sites then, including a spot on the Hilltop, some acreage near Columbus State, the Pen site, the Scioto Peninsula and the Whittier Street impound lot. "Zurab," says Butler, "happened to prefer the downtown riverfront site.”

Tsereteli himself showed up the first week of April, after things had died out in Florida; LeBow was out and the original Miami foundation was folding. His arrival here—during an unseasonable snow shower—was a magical moment, says Butler. "I was feeling awful about it," she says. “I was thinking, 'You can't even see the skyline.' And then, through the interpreter, he said he saw it as a positive omen. He said the other two times he had located major projects in the United States, it snowed the first time he came. He liked the city, and really, really loved the site," Butler says. 

“What he saw," Goldberg says, “was the spirit of the community, a real can-do spirit in the city of Columbus. He saw a very civic group of people, which, in a way, was very different from what was going on in South Florida. He looked at Columbus, and at what Columbus had accomplished with the new convention center, the Santa Maria—and he was just very, very impressed, with the business community and the citizenry and with that can-do attitude." 

In retrospect, maybe the whole thing would have gone away if somebody—anybody—with the power to just say "No" had done so. 

Nobody did. The mayor didn't, not at first. Columbus City Council didn't say anything. Ty Stroh, head of the Greater Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau, actually liked the idea. 

"I realize the dollar situation is always a major concern,” says Stroh. “And it should be. But my feeling is that the city could use an attraction of some kind like that. I'm always reminded of the space needle in Seattle, the Peace Arch in St. Louis, the little river in San Antonio. I'm still searching for an image.”

"It's possible that families driving through with children and so forth would stop. I think they would do that. I'm not saying it would be a magnet to Columbus, necessarily, but it would enhance it somewhat." 

The statue had a knack for making the news. First, there was the letter battle with Fort Lauderdale Vice-Mayor Carey Keno, who wrote to tell Columbus to get real and that nobody would come to "a town in the middle of nowhere" to see the statue. Lashutka wrote back to tell Keno that “your position of trust and public responsibility for the city of Fort Lauderdale is certainly well disguised in your letter," and Keno responded by telling reporters that the one time he'd been to Ohio “I froze my ass off and got stuck in an elevator." 

(Later, as things collapsed in Fort Lauderdale, Keno still wouldn't back down.  " We got the head,” Keno said. “I ain't letting the head go.") 

After the letter battle came protests—artists squawked and Native American groups blasted the idea at City Council. 

Then it was trips. In the spring, Mayor Greg Lashutka and Franklin County Commissioner Dorothy Teater, among others, flew to Moscow. They were there for other reasons, but Max Goldberg was there, too, and he linked everybody up with Tsereteli. 

"I think we're continuing to move forward through very positive discussions," Lashutka was quoted as saying after that meeting. Things were beginning to sound serious. 

The news stories kept coming, expertly stoked by Jane Butler and the statue machine. For the most part, they tracked Columbus' ever-increasing chances of actually landing this important international gift. 

"Whittier peninsula could land huge statue," read one  Dispatch  headline. “Artist says Columbus is No. 1," read another, right about the time things went belly up in Fort Lauderdale. 

Then, finally, the news. 

"Columbus is named as site for colossus,” proclaimed the  Dispatch  headline in October. “We are pleased to officially announce on this Columbus Day 1993 that we have chosen Columbus, Ohio, as the host city for this international gift," wrote Tsereteli in a letter.

W e 'd gone and gotten ourselves chosen.

But meanwhile, things were going a little sour inside the Columbus New World Foundation. And Mayor Lashutka was becoming increasingly negative about the statue project.

Lashutka did not come out flatly against the project until the end of the year. His doubts, though, had been brewing. One insider with the New World Foundation, who asked not to be identified, says Lashutka never liked the statue, that he had once even called it “ugly." 

"I would never say that," Lashutka says. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Lashutka's doubts, though, were evident in an October letter to the mayor of Moscow shortly after Columbus got chosen. The letter, though written in Lashutka-ese, seemed to say the mayor doubted anyone was interested in the statue except Tsereteli. The New World Monument, he wrote, “will have greater significance to both of us and our respective cities should it also include a broader agenda for both our countries." 

Lashutka says he never got a response to that letter; “My guess is that there's as little enthusiasm for it over there. as there is here," he says. Lashutka's main problem is the financial arrangement. If Tsereteli keeps the souvenir revenue, who pays for maintenance? “With the Statue of Liberty, that's what that money goes for," Lashutka says. “I can understand Tsereteli's personal reasons for wanting to keep his arms around this thing. It's a lot of money."

"You've heard of the Trojan Horse ?"  he asks.

Lashutka wasn't saying those kinds of things publicly last fall. That he was saying them in private, though, may have had something to do with what happened inside the statue committee back then. A board member, and three out of three consultants working with the board, began to doubt that Butler's all-is-well, things-are-moving-along PR approach was accomplishing much. They thought a little intercity competition for the statue might liven things up. That's their version, anyway. The other version is that they tried to steal the statue and send it to Cleveland. 

The problem surfaced during an October trip to Moscow by committee members, consultants, Franklin County Commissioner Arlene Shoemaker and Frank Fela of the Cleveland-based Voinovich Cos. (The trip was funded either by Tsereteli or by the national arts organization he heads, depending on who's talking.)

Three things happened when the group got back. The foundation board booted one of its members. The board cut off the three consultants. And Fela, in cooperation with one of those consultants, wrote a letter to Tsereteli in early November, suggesting that Cleveland was a better idea. 

The letter said the statue's Columbus backers "do not currently have the full support of the Mayor of Columbus or key Columbus business leaders," and that Voinovich Cos. had been contacted by the city of Cleveland, which had a "strong interest" in having the statue go there, 

Coincidentally or otherwise, Governor George. Voinovich, whose brother runs Voinovich Cos., sent a letter of his own around this time. The letter, which Voinovich press secretary Mike Dawson says was "purely ceremonial," accepted the statue on behalf of Ohio's citizenry, said there'd be no state money and never mentioned Columbus. Butler says the foundation didn't solicit the Voinovich letter and she doesn't know who did. (Neither does Dawson.) 

Butler made the most of it all. “That iced it," she told the  Dispatch o f the governor's official acceptance letter. The statue's parts now could be shipped as early as January, she told th e Dispatch.

The statue-stealing plot didn't get far. After it went public in the Cleveland  Plain Dealer,  Cleveland Mayor Mike White killed it decisively. 

"The city of Cleveland doesn't have any interest in erecting a 300-foot statue of Christopher Columbus,” White told the  Plain Dealer.  The story got national play, landing Tsereteli's statue on the front page of the  Ne w  York Time s .' 

"I'm flattered that someone thought it worth stealing," Butler says now. "It gave the project great credibility.” 

Two weeks later, Lashutka spoke up in public. The city, he said, had other priorities.

"I am courteous in my audiences with the people who are leading the charge," he said in an interview with the  Dispatch. "But I'm not at the front of the line. Occasionally, you have to look over your shoulder and see if any people are following you. I don't feel a lot of people following on this issue." 

In the minds of a whole lot of people, that killed the New World Monument project. The mayor had spoken. The debate was over. 

Those people were wrong.

That the statue-backers won't give up raises an interesting question. Can they really do this ? 

No law yet exists that says private money can't put private art on private land simply because most of us don't like it.

Even arts types are reluctant to call it a public art issue, though they believe they should be involved in the process somehow. "I think the people who are behind it are not qualified to make those kinds of decisions,” says Ohio State's Black. "If you want to put up a big sculpture on the riverfront, have a competition, do it right." 

But is a private sculpture public art, simply because we'd all have to look at it? Black doubts it. So does the Greater Columbus Arts Council's Ray Hanley; “We all have to look at each other's porches, too,” he says. 

Tom Kipp, of the city development department, says he doesn't yet know what zoning laws would apply but is fairly certain something would. It's also possible the new Riverfront Development Corp. could have some say-so; the organization is supposed to decide what the riverfront will look like. 

"Columbus should have some control over the development of its Downtown riverfront," says Black. “This statue would kill that. It would be an overgrown atrocity. It wouldn't put us on the map. It would get us laughed off the globe."

Meanwhile, down at the statue committee, they're still optimistic. The mayor's disapproval? No problem. "The mayor's been pretty consistent on this,” says Butler. “This is not a public project, and it's inappropriate for him as a mayor to come out and take a lead on it because it's not a public project. He has, however, met with us a number of times, and he's met with the artist a number of times. He's communicated with the mayor of Moscow. The door is still open." 

"No one in this city has closed the door to the monument. They are quietly working with us. In the background. They've been very consistent, with saying this is  your project." 

And so, the committee spent February eyeing the privately owned Lazarus warehouse as the statue site, Tsereteli and friends were going to put up the front money, and the parts were supposedly on their way—the head in March, the rest in late spring. CBS's  Eye to Eye program was going to come to town, newspapers from as far away as Texas had been calling, rumor had it that Bill Clinton would visit Tsereteli's studio and Zurab would be coming back here, and the ball was rolling, really rolling. 

"The media seems to want to think of this as frivolous," says Butler. "It's not. This is an international gift that's been recognized at the federal level, and Columbus, Ohio, has an opportunity to capture it." 

This story originally appeared in the April 1994 issue of  Columbus Monthly.

Like what you’re reading?  Subscribe   to  Columbus Monthly  magazine so that you keep abreast of the most exciting and interesting events and destinations to explore, as well as the most talked-about newsmakers shaping life in Columbus.