From 1541 to 1853, military activity in Kansas centered on exploration and discovery. The first Europeans in what is now Kansas were Spanish soldiers led by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in 1541. Although they did not find cities of gold, Coronado recognized the richness of the prairie soil and claimed the country for Spain. France later established its claim through Etienne Veniard de Bourgmont's 1724 expedition. The first American exploring party, commanded by Lt. Zebulon Montgomery Pike in 1806, entered Kansas after it became part of the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. In 1819, Maj. Stephen H. Long led the first scientific survey of Kansas. Neither Pike nor Long saw agricultural value in the plains, which were commonly called the Great American Desert at the time. During the 1840's, John C. Freemont explored the Smoky Hill River basin as a travel route, and the path he examined later became the Smoky Hill Trail. The final exploration came in 1853, when Capt. J.W. Gunnison of the army's topographical engineers led one of five government expeditions seeking the best transcontinental railroad route, and the path he surveyed there later became the Kansas-Pacific Railway. Western Kansas is mostly short-grass prairie habitat dominated by blue grama and buffalo grass, with a wide variety of wildflowers and shrubs. The prairie was once grazed by herds of buffalo, elk, and pronghorn antelope, and it supports snakes, toads, insects, spiders, eagles, burrowing owls, other birds, foxes, coyotes, and prairie dogs.