[4] In 1878, John Lorenzo Hubbell purchased this trading post, ten years after Navajos were allowed to return to the Ganado region from their U.S.-imposed exile in Bosque Redondo, Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

first tells the story of John Lorenzo Hubble and the trading empire he built, then continues with in-depth analysis of his heirs and their involvement in the Southwest ethnic art industry.

[citation needed] The Navajos were troubled by an economic depression in the late 19th century as a result of the Long Walk.

Heavy sandstones from the area were quarried in 1883 to begin construction of this solid building along the southern banks of the Pueblo Colorado Wash. Life at Hubbell Trading Post centered around it.

During the four years' internment at Bosque Redondo, Navajos were introduced to many new items (e.g., flour, sugar, coffee, baking powder, canned goods, tobacco, tools, cloth, etc.).

In exchange for the trader's goods the Navajos traded wool, sheep and, later, rugs, jewelry, baskets and pottery.

[citation needed] Hubbell family members operated this trading post until it was sold to the National Park Service in 1967.

Visitors can experience this historic trading post on the Navajo Nation, which includes weaving demonstrations; and the store still maintains a wooden floor and walls from the days of old.

A set of initials carved on the gate of the privacy wall which separates the public spaces from the private stand for John Lorenzo Hubbell.

In 1878 he bought the small buildings comprising the compound from a trader named William Leonard, and started business.

During the first half of the 20th century, Hubbell built an economic empire consisting of more than 20 trading posts that was able to influence the production and development of traditional designs that remain in use today.

It started out as a plain adobe building which the Hubbell family gradually made into a comfortable, and in some ways, luxurious home.

Beyond the perimeter wall to the north courses the Pueblo Colorado Wash, the northern boundary of the Hubbell settlement.

When Roman died in 1957, his wife Dorothy managed the store for another ten years, until 1967 when the National Park Service acquired the site.

Built with juniper logs upright in the ground, the corrals of the trading post held lambs and sheep purchased from Navajo stockmen by Mr. Hubbell.

Freight wagons brought supplies 56 mi (90 km) to the store from the little railroad town of Gallup, New Mexico, two to four days' travel in good weather.

Ponderosa pine beams, aspen poles, juniper bark, cornstalks, and dirt make up layers, each at right angles to the one below it.

The aspen poles came from farther away in the Chuska Mountains that straddle the Arizona/New Mexico state line one hundred miles north to the intersection with Colorado and Utah.