Hubbell Trading Post

Hubbell Trading Post is the oldest continuously operating trading post in the Navajo Nation. It is located one mile west of Ganado, AZ and 55 miles northwest of Gallup, NM.

 

 

   

The day we were there it was snowing and cold.

 

It was a tight squeeze getting the motor home over this bridge to the trading post.

 

        

When you step through the door the old plank floors ‘creak’ with age!

 

Inside the trading post there is a jewelry room with a fantastic collection of turquoise and silver jewelry (with equally fantastic prices!) as well as a rug room (when I walked into it, I thought I had died and gone to heaven!). The picture above is of the “bullroom”, a place to sit around the stove and “shoot the bull”.

 

“The Navajo looked upon the trading post as a place to socialize, to meet old friends and relatives, as well as to conduct business. To reach it they traveled long miles by horse and wagon or on foot over dry dusty trails, slick with mud in wet weather. At the post they traded their blankets, wool and sheep, pelts, and turquoise and silver jewelry for groceries, tobacco, tools, cloth and other items. The post was a center for news and gossip, and no effort was made to hurry trade.

Hubbell Trading Post is typical of the old trading posts. The main trading area with its rectangular iron stove is called the bullpen, and its appearance has changed little in the last 100 years. Shelves filled with coffee, flour, sugar, calico, pocket knives, and canned goods stand behind tall counters, hardware and harnesses hang from the ceiling.

Besides introducing many new products to the Navajo, traders were vital intermediaries between the tribe and the non-Indian community. The traders’ support of government programs—like education, livestock improvement, and modern medical care—was essential to their acceptance.
Some traders, like Hubbell, helped the Navajo obtain government aid in building dams and irrigation projects. Hubbell hired many Navajos to drive his freight wagons, help plant crops, and clerk in some of his stores. He donated a parcel of land for the construction of a Navajo school.”

Guest house behind trading post.

 

It was good stop on our way to Canyon de Chelly, and was a great glimpse into the past.

 

 More of our adventures out here on the road.