An old Indian trading post established by the Goulding family in the 1920s on the Navajo Reservation has been restored and will function as a museum following its dedication this week.
The outpost, on 640 acres of private property within the Navajo Reservation, is about 20 miles south of Mexican Hat."It has been restored to look just like it did, through use of photographs . . .," said Susan Cretton, lodge manager.
The Gouldings settled in Monument Valley in 1924, starting out with a tent camp and trading post with a counter made of orange crates and a couple of boards, said Cretton.
"Initially, life was not without incident. They were threatened and that sort of thing," Cretton said. "They stood their ground and through a chain of events, they earned the Indians' respect and ultimately became known as king and queen of the valley. They did lots of things to help the Indians over the years."
Goulding's Trading Post, nominated in 1981 to the state Register of Historic Sites, is now owned by brothers Gerald and Roland LaFont and will be operated as a cultural center by the Harry and Mike Goulding Museum Foundation, a nonprofit organization.
Museum exhibits will feature Anasazi Indian artifacts and the Goulding collections of Navajo art work and basketry and historical objects from the eras of Navajo Chief Hoskinini-Begay, Paiute Chief Posey and Hosteen Tso.
Upton said the Gouldings had quite a sense of history and saved an extensive array of newspaper articles, photographs, art work, and memorabilia from John Ford films.
"A big drawing card is the movie history - John Wayne and John Ford. For our museum, we've had some people donate movie posters in other languages - John Wayne in `She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' and others that he made here," Cretton said.
"We also had an awful lot of commercials filmed here, plus some TV series, so there's a lot of different things that draw people here, plus the spectacular beauty of the region."