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"We have tales of Celtic settlements that preceded Columbus, but they were presumably on the other side of the continent and it's hard to see how they would have gotten to Nevada."

Barry Fell found ample "Celtic" artifacts in Ohio and points further west.
Taking another quantum leap of historic/mythic supposition, what of the Celtic Tuatha De Danaans?

In the ancient "myths" the fair-haired De Danaans arrived in great ships from the west and conquered the Firbolg tribes of what would become Ireland.
Then they left again, heading west.
Conversely, these same [?] 'gods' had been here and sailed -east-, promising the indigenous population that they would someday return.
Many Indian tribes [including the Mayans, Aztec & Incans] had legends of 'red-haired gods' who came from the east.
One theory of why Cortez was able to conquer the Aztec so easily is that the Aztec believed that Cortez and his Spaniards were 'the old gods, returned'.
Every "myth" is formed around some tiny speck of of long-forgotten truth much like a pearl is formed around a grain of sand.

There are things about this world which we will simply never know....*unless* we delve deeply into mythopaeic 'history'.
Personally, I find that delightful, intriguing and far beyond fascinating.
I'd rather take that path towards enlightenment than the usual dry bones and potsherds approach.
"History" is a living, breathing mystery and should be appreciated as such....:)

One fascinating little snippet from Google;

The Aztec Empire
The Spanish landed upon the shores of Meso-America in February of the year 1519, in the area of Vera Cruz.
By November of that year, the Spanish fleet, commanded by Hernando Cortez, entered into Tenochtitlan and simply arrested the Emperor of the Aztec, Montezuma.
Within the time span of two years, Cortez dismantled the Aztec monarchy and gained control of all of Tenochtitlan, and many of it's surrounding territories.

Why was the Aztec Empire taken so quickly by the Europeans led by Cortez?
There are many factors to consider in answering such a question. Of the most important is the time in which Cortez entered into Tenochtitlan.
Prior to his arrival, the Aztec had seen many astrological phenomena which seemed to portend the collapse of the empire itself.
These portents of doom ranged from a comet seen in the day time, to the destruction of two temples.
In addition to these omens of doom, Cortez arrived at harvest time, when the Aztec were generally not prepared for war, although there were battles.
Also, the Tlaxcalans helped Cortez fight the Aztecs. Also, the Aztecs believed that the god Quetzalcoatl was going to return and destroy the Aztec empire.
Quetzalcoatl was seen as a man with light hair, and light colored skin, and it was thought by the Aztec, that Cortez was the returning Quetzalcoatl.
Outbreaks of epidemics also helped to weaken the Aztecs. As a result of all of these factors, the Aztec were ripe for an invasion, and Cortez succeeded in decimating the once great Aztec empire.

And just to add more fuel to an already incendiary topic, universities of both Harrisburg PA and Winchester VA have in their possession many "rune stones" of Celtic/Nordic origin found in situ in those states a long time ago.
They will not let anyone see them.

Kinda sounds like a sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark, doesn't it?....:))

[and thank you very much for the great Si-Te-Cah link]

"Why was the Aztec Empire taken so quickly by the Europeans led by Cortez?"

I found this interesting.

Historical Review: Megadrought And Megadeath In 16th Century Mexico (Hemorragic Fever?)

"The epidemic of cocoliztli from 1545 to 1548 killed an estimated 5 million to 15 million people, or up to 80% of the native population of Mexico (Figure 1). In absolute and relative terms the 1545 epidemic was one of the worst demographic catastrophes in human history, approaching even the Black Death of bubonic plague, which killed approximately 25 million in western Europe from 1347 to 1351 or about 50% of the regional population."

Additional Aztec/Mexico information.

The grand advisor to the Aztec chief several decades earlier had instituted a policy which greatly increased the enthusiasm of the surrounding tribes/cities/towns for assisting the Spaniards. Protein was always in short supply especially for a warrior people. They had turkey, fish, dogs, but nothing large like cattle. This grand advisor basically said "let us make tlaxcalla (and other places) our granery." He instituted a very systematic program of annual warfare in which thousands of captives were brought back to the capital, sacrificed by having their hearts cut out, then eaten by the citizens. I may be mistaken, but I seem to recall a number of 100,000 being the total number of Tlaxcallans killed and eaten over many years.

Two long contemporary accounts of the conquest are Cortez' "Five Letters to King Carlos V" of Spain, and the account written by one of his lieutenants Bernal Diaz. A Twentieth Century historical novel of that time is "Heart of Jade" by Salvador Madarriaga.

I spent one entire afternoon, wandering through the ruins and restorations of the old sacred city of Teotihuacan, about 30 miles outside of Mexico City (then known as Tenochtitlan). It was really a very large city, several miles along the main thoroughfare, and extending to the side a fair distance as well. Quite amazing.