Old Trading Posts of the Four Corners

Old Trading Posts of the Four Corners is a field guide to the early trading posts of the corner where Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico meet. Richard Berkholz traveled the region widely before writing it, and the posts he covers stood on or near the Navajo, Hopi and Ute Mountain Ute reservations.

The book works entry by entry. According to the publisher's description, each post gets directions to the site, a short history, its current status and condition, its owners, and now and then an anecdote worth repeating. Some of the posts are gone without a trace, and the book says so rather than skipping them.

The posts it covers opened for business in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and the coverage runs up to 1950. Photographs of the posts then and now sit beside maps and historical sidebars on the tribes and settlers the posts served. Open Library files the book under trading posts, guidebooks, commerce and Indians of North America, which fits a guide that is as much about the people who traded as the buildings they traded in.

This book suits travelers who plan to drive the back roads of the Four Corners and want to know what stood at a crossroads before they get there. It also serves collectors and students of Navajo and Hopi trade, local historians, and anyone tracing a family link to a particular post. The entries are short and self-contained, so you can read one for the post you are standing near, or work through the region from cover to cover.

Richard C. Berkholz is the author, and his description says he traveled extensively through the region to produce the book. This is the only book of his in our catalogue. We could not find a published biography for him, so we will not invent one. His author page shows the record we hold.

More about Richard C. Berkholz →

A trading post was often the one store, post office and meeting place for miles around, and the Navajo posts in particular shaped the trade that grew up around them. The National Park Service tells the story of Hubbell Trading Post in Arizona, which John Lorenzo Hubbell bought in 1878. That was ten years after the Navajo were allowed to return to their homeland from their exile at Bosque Redondo in New Mexico.

During those years at Bosque Redondo, the Navajo were introduced to many new items, and traders such as Hubbell supplied those goods once the people were home. The Park Service says Hubbell had an enduring influence on Navajo rug weaving and silversmithing because he consistently demanded and promoted excellence in craftsmanship.

He also built something larger than one store. The Park Service says that he and his two sons, together or separately, owned 24 trading posts at various times, along with stage and freight lines, a wholesale house in Winslow and other properties. Hubbell is one chain among many, but his story shows how a single trader could shape the trade across a wide stretch of the Southwest.

Source: National Park Service, A Brief History of Hubbell Trading Post