The Red Lake Trading Post was established by George McAdams in 1884 and was acquired by the Babbitt brothers, the famous mercantile family of northern Arizona, in 1891. Trading posts were important social and economic centers for the Navajo, primarily because many Navajo operated on a barter economy until the middle of the 20th Century. It sits along U.S. 160 approximately 20 miles northeast of Tuba City, the original administrative center for the western Navajo Indian Reservation. Both the 1927 and 1928 trips began at Red Lake (Tonalea) Trading Post, where they acquired pack animals and provisions.
Repeat Photography Site for The James J. Hanks Photographs, 1927-1928.
