Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site

Hubbell Trading Post in Ganado has been selling goods and trading Native American art since 1878. The National Park Service calls it the oldest operating trading post on the Navajo Nation. It is still a working store. Inside the dim 'bullpen', with its squeaky wooden floors, local people buy groceries and dry goods. Weavers and artists bring rugs, jewelry and baskets to trade. If you're lucky, you may watch the trader buy a rug.

Ganado is its own small Navajo community, not part of Window Rock. It lies about 31 miles west of Window Rock on State Route 264 and about 36 miles south of Chinle, so this guide lists Hubbell with Window Rock only as the nearest base.

John Lorenzo Hubbell bought the post in 1878, ten years after the Navajo were allowed home from their exile at Bosque Redondo, near Fort Sumner, New Mexico. During their four years there, the Navajo had come to use many new goods, and traders like Hubbell supplied them after their return. He demanded high-quality work from weavers and silversmiths, and the Park Service credits him with a lasting influence on Navajo rug weaving and silverwork. At different times he and his two sons owned 24 trading posts, along with a wholesale house in Winslow and stage and freight lines. The family ran the post until they sold it to the Park Service in 1967, two years after Congress made it a national historic site on August 28, 1965. Western National Parks Association, a nonprofit, operates the post today as a Park Service partner.

Plan on an hour or two. Start at the visitor center for exhibits on the Hubbell family, and try the visitor loom. Then walk the grounds. You'll pass the barn, the bunkhouse, the guest hogan, old farm equipment, chickens and the park's Navajo-Churro sheep. In the Rug Room, a Navajo weaver may be at work. The Park Service says an average rug of 2.5 by 4 feet takes three to four months of full-time weaving. Rangers lead free tours of the Hubbell family home, still furnished with the family's belongings, when staff are available. Groups are limited to 15. The site's collection holds more than 350,000 items, including 264,000 business records. Each December the park holds a Luminaria Night.

There is no entrance fee. The gate, trading post and visitor center are open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The park may close on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day, and sometimes with little notice in severe weather. Hubbell keeps Navajo Nation time. When it is 1 p.m. in Flagstaff during daylight saving time, it is 2 p.m. here. Pets are not allowed in buildings, but leashed pets may stay in the front parking area.