Adams] SHONTO: ROLE OF NAVAHO TRADER 43 



set up the first Shonto Trading Post. The enterprise continued in- 

 termittently for several years under hired operators, and was even- 

 tually sold out to Harry Rorick, who built the present store buildings. 

 At that time the only access by wagon was up Shonto Canyon from its 

 mouth, through a series of deep sand drifts. The little post was en- 

 tirely isolated during the winter months. During the 1920's, how- 

 ever, a primitive road was hacked out of the steep west canyon wall, 

 allowing wagon trade with the populous area to the west as far as Cow 

 Springs Canyon. The east canyon wall, giving access to Long House 

 Valley, Marsh Pass and Tsegi, was not breached by auto road until 

 1935. 



In the years following the establishment of Shonto, various other 

 trading enterprises came into the northwestern Navaho country. Eed 

 Lake and Cow Springs stores were opened southwest of Shonto, the 

 latter operating as an outpost of the foi-mer. Oljeto was reactivated 

 about 1920. Ben Wetherill ran a small outpost on Navajo Mountain 

 in 1928, but the present Inscription House and Navajo Mountain 

 stores did not come into operation until the Rainbow Plateau was 

 finally made accessible by auto road in 1934. The little Tsegi Trading 

 Post in Marsh Pass was opened immediately after World War II by 

 an enterprising Navaho, former employee of Shonto Trading Post, 

 underwritten by a loan from the Navaho tribe. 



TOURIST DEVELOPMENT 



Navajo National Monument, consisting of four small reservations 

 enclosing the principal cliff dwellings of Tsegi and Navajo Canyons, 

 was created by executive order in 1907. The Wetherills at Kayenta 

 built up a lively tourist business guiding visitors to these ruins, orig- 

 inally discovered by them, as well as to the Rainbow natural bridge, 

 which John Wetherill and Byron Cummings had discovered in 1909. 

 By 1915 the Wetherills had added an extensive guest ranch to their 

 trading enterprise. Development by the U.S. National Park Service 

 was not undertaken until 20 years later, when a passable auto road 

 was constructed from the Tuba City-Kayenta highway in Klethla 

 Valley to the rim of Tsegi Canyon just above Betatakin ruin. At that 

 time a permanent national monument headquarters with the usual 

 camping facilities was established at the end of the road. Betatakin, 

 as the settlement is commonly called, has since been the home of a 

 permanent Anglo custodian and two seasonal Navaho employees. In 

 recent years Navajo National Monument has drawn nearly 2,000 

 visitors annually. 



Also during the early 1930's, a new auto road was constructed from 

 the lower end of Klethla Valley, near Cow Springs, northward to the 

 foot of Navajo Mountain. This road afforded good access for the 

 first time to Rainbow natural bridge, a national monument since 1910, 



