Planned Restoration Of Old Trading Post Brings Back Memories Of Days Gone By

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By Tammy Gray-Searles
    “I think this is going to be a rich contribution to the history of this town,” remarked author Martha Blue about the restoration of the old Hubbell Trading Post on Second Street in Winslow.
    Blue was a featured guest during a community forum held last week on the history of the trading post, restoration efforts and the role trading posts played in Northeastern Arizona’s history.
    The old trading post is undergoing a restoration that will eventually lead to the Chamber of Commerce being located there, along with an interpretive display for visitors. Many original architectural elements remain, as well as the old safe, vault and scale. The hardwood floors, although in need of some care, are smooth and free from serious damage, and the tin ceiling panels with their intricately stamped designs are still in place, but they have been painted over.
    Even on a sizzling summer day, the thick walls keep the temperature modest, as long as the heavy wood-framed windows are open.
    In its day, the main floor served as the trading area, with offices in the rear, and sheep were sheared in the basement. Across the street, a building that now serves as Calvary Chapel was an additional warehouse for supplies to be shipped. An old freight loading dock can still be seen along the east side of the building, and railroad tracks ran right up to the loading dock, where a modern street now exists.
    According to Blue, who is the author of “Indian Trader: The Life and Times of J.L. Hubbell,” the trading posts in Winslow, of which there were many, were for many years the major connection between the Native American reservations and the rest of the world. She explained that Winslow became an important trading point because of the railway, and its proximity to the Navajo and Hopi tribes.
    Blue also explained that during her research she learned that there were about 24 Hopi-run trading posts in the general area at the turn of the century. There were also many Navajo-owned trading posts, and she believes that the Hopi and Navajo-owned trading posts supplied the Hubbell Trading Post in Winslow as part of a unique relationship.
    Attendees at the event were asked to recall any memories they had of the trading post when it was still in operation. One woman stood up and told the crowd that she moved to Winslow as a young woman, and seeking a job, she applied at the trading post.
    “They asked if I was a bookkeeper, and I said yes I was,” she recalled. “Of course, I wasn’t, I was a fraud.”
    She also recalled how she thought she could speak enough Navajo to conduct trades, but when her first customer replied to her “trader” Navajo, she didn’t understand anything he had said.
    “I got fired,” she said, “but I was young and it was an experience I’ll never forget.”
    Another attendee, Elizabeth Ann Jones-Duvall, recalled her experience growing up at a trading post in Kaibito. Her parents ran the trading post, and eventually came to own it. She noted that she was glad to see the history of the trading post being explored and reclaimed.
    Rosemary Navarro (Curley) also shared her family history involving trading posts, noting that her relatives emigrated from Ireland and wound up near Tuba City, working for the Babbitt family. Eventually her grandfather saved up enough money to open his own trading post. The operation was passed on to her uncle, who operated it until the late 1960s.
    “Then the bottom fell out of the wool market, with all the synthetic fibers,” she said.
    The group discussion turned to race relations and economic changes that have occurred over the last 100 years. Blue pointed out that by their very nature, old trading posts provide a complex picture of a community as it functioned during certain time periods, “in terms of how people are treated where they do business.” One member of the group pointed out that although discrimination still exists, she believes great strides were made after World War II, and that those changes were reflected in the way business was con-ducted at the trading posts.
    The forum was ended with a traditional Navajo prayer spoken in English, followed by a request that the restoration of the trading post focus on the positive aspects of the relationship of Native Americans and traders, and improve cultural understanding.
    No timeline has been set for completion of the restoration work.