Oljato Trading Post

Oljato means Moonwater — a spring in country so remote the Diné who lived here had largely escaped the Long Walk and kept the old ways. When John and Louisa Wetherill rode up in 1906 to open a trading post, the Navajo leader Hoskininni Begay told them to leave. They stayed. For families scattered across the mesas, the post became the one link to the outside — store, bank, post office, and gathering hall in its trading-room bullpen. Louisa learned the language better than her husband, was adopted into a leading family, and was trusted to judge local disputes.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park — 5.8 mi
  The most iconic Western landscape on Earth
• Forrest Gump Point — 13 mi
  The exact spot where Forrest stopped running
• Goosenecks State Park — 19 mi
  A 1,000-foot-deep river canyon with impossibly tight meanders
• Mexican Hat Rock — 21 mi
  A perfectly balanced sombrero-shaped rock formation