Located about an hour from Gallup on the Navajo Reservation in Ganado, Arizona, the Hubbell Trading Post has been selling supplies, groceries, and a variety of Native American arts and crafts for over a century. Established by John Lorenzo Hubbell in 1878, the Hubbell family sold the trading post to the National Park Service in 1967. The facility is operated by the non-profit Western National Parks Association. The park service developed exhibits and opened the surrounding homestead to visitors; however, they kept the trading post open and active to continue the Hubbell family’s legacy of trading. Walking through the trading post is low-cost time travel. The appearance hasn’t changed dramatically over the years. The salesroom, storage room, and office rooms provide exhibit space for an impressive collection of Navajo art and pioneer artifacts. There is no fee to explore the trading post and exhibits, but there is a $5/person fee to tour the 160-acre Hubbell homestead, including the family home, bunkhouse, guest hogan, barn, and private collection of Native American arts and crafts.

In July, 1863 General James H. Carleton ordered Colonel “Kit” Carson to forcibly remove the Navajo from their homelands. With Carleton’s blessing, Carson’s troops launched a brutal attack on the Navajo. They destroyed crops, killed livestock and wildlife, burned homes, and murdered innocent Navajo men, women, and children. Facing starvation, most Navajo surrendered by the end of 1863. The U.S. Army forced approximately 8500 men women, and children to walk 300+ miles from eastern Arizona and western New Mexico to Bosque Redondo, near Fort Sumner, a 40 square mile reservation on the Pecos River. Known as the Long Walk, many people perished on the way. Many more died on the reservation due to harsh conditions, disease, and lack of food.

When the Navajos returned from The Long Walk in 1868, their traditional way of life was in ruins, with fields destroyed and herds decimated. Isolated on reservations, far from large settlements, there were few economic opportunities, further complicated by widespread racism towards Native Americans at that time. Trade became a way to survive the economic depression that accompanied the return to their land. Traders like Hubbell provided a connection to the world beyond the reservation, where the Navajo could procure necessities to supplement what they could raise themselves, grow, or hunt. The emergence of trade as an economic anchor can be seen today in the many trading posts in Arizona and New Mexico.

Trade has been a part of life for tribes in the Southwest for centuries (or longer). El Camino Real, established by the Spanish, follows a well-worn trade route between tribes in Mexico and the Ancestral Puebloans. Regional trade fairs were busy events in the pueblos long before the Spanish and Americans arrived, though both had desirable commodities that were unavailable in the region prior to their arrival. The Spanish brought horses, cows, pigs, sheep, apple trees, peach trees, wheat, gunpowder, etc. The American trading posts provided staples like flour, sugar, coffee, tobacco, cloth, weapons, and tools. Initially the Navajo traded wool and sheep for the items they needed. That evolved to rugs, baskets, pottery, and jewelry over time, with traders like John Hubbell connecting the reservations with the outside world.

John Lorenzo Hubbell was raised in Pajarito Mesa, New Mexico, south of Albuquerque. His father was Anglo and his mother Spanish. He didn’t learn to speak English until he was 12. He made his way to Arizona in the summer of 1873, less than a decade after the Long Walk. He purchased property and several small buildings that formed a compound from a trader named William Leonard. He was 25, single, and didn’t speak Navajo fluently. With an abundance of optimism and ambition, he set up a trading post, opening in 1878.

The trading post became the headquarters of Hubbell’s business empire, which grew to include several ranches, bean and apple farms, two wholesale stores, a few curio shops, stage and freight lines, saloons, mail lines, and up to 24 trading posts, managed by him or one of his family members. Over the years, he became one of the most respected Navajo traders of his time. His influence on Navajo silversmithing can be seen today. He brought Mexican silversmiths to the small village that gradually developed around the Hubbell homestead. Hubbell paid them to teach silversmithing to local Navajo men. He wanted to promote outstanding craftsmanship while creating financial opportunities for the local community.

As a prominent citizen in the territory, Hubbell turned his eye to politics later in life, serving as a senator on the Territorial Government in 1912. Arizona achieved statehood that year so Hubbell became a State Senator. However, after his wife died unexpectedly in 1913, he retired from politics in 1914. Prior to his death, he wrote a memoir entitled, “Fifty Years an Indian Trader.” John Hubbell passed away at home in 1930 at the age of 77. He was buried in the family cemetery behind the trading post on Hubbell Hill. The Hubbell Trading Post is a National Historic Site and National Historic Landmark.

The Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site is located one mile west of Highway 191 on U.S. Highway 264 in Ganado, Arizona. General admission is free. Tours of the historic Hubbell home are available for $5/person, age 16 and under free. The Visitor Center provides exhibits and a self-guided tour booklet.

Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site
P.O. Box 329
1/2 Mile W, Hwy. 191
Ganado, AZ 86505
info@hubbelltradingpost.org
(928) 755-3254

Summer Hours: 8 AM to 6 PM May to October.
Winter Hours: 8 AM to 5 PM October through May.
Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day.

Hubbell Trading Post is within the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Nation observes Mountain Daylight Saving Time from March through November while the rest of Arizona observes Mountain Standard Time. During this time, when it is 1 PM in most of Arizona, it is 2 PM at the Hubbell Trading Post.

There are demonstrations of Navajo rug weaving in the Visitor Center, as well as a small museum display. The trading post offers Native American arts and crafts: rugs, baskets, kachinas, jewelry, drums, pots, etc. There is a small grocery store in the trading post. Gas stations, restaurants, and other services are available locally.

Holiday Luminarias

The trading post hosts a Luminaria Night in December. Over 700 luminarias are illuminated along the roadways, sidewalk, and rooftops. The Spanish word luminaria is a reference to small, traditional bonfires, which are more common in northern New Mexico around the holidays. Farolito means little flame.

This Hispanic tradition is widely practiced in New Mexico, but it causes a heated annual debate about calling them luminarias vs. farolitos. Call for specific dates and times of the events (520) 755-3475.

Scenic Loop | Chuska Mountains

If you have time to make a day of it and enjoy the red sandstone and spires of the American Southwest, you can check out Hubbell Trading Post, then head north on I-12 through the Chuska Mountains. I-12 connects to NM-491 at Sheep Springs and you can take 491 south back to Gallup.