This trading post was located off of Highway 160, formerly Navajo Route 1. It was established in 1882 by George McAdams and was acquired by the Babbitt Brothers Trading Company, located in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1895. As trading posts and their mode of business became less relevant the Babbitt’s closed many locations, by the 1970's the Cow Springs trading post was abandoned. The turn off exit for the trading post is noted in Tony Hillerman's fiction.
"Cow Springs Trading Post, Arizona, circa 1949," photograph, Palace of the Governors Photo Archive, New Mexico History Museum, Santa Fe (046029). Use with permission only.
Cline Library
1999 Traders Voices from the Trading Post. Flagstaff: Arizona Board of Regents, Northern
Arizona University.
Dean Smith
1989 Brothers Five: The Babbitts of Arizona. Tempe: Arizona Historical Foundation.
Linford, Laurance D.
2001 Tony Hillerman's Navajoland: Hideouts, Haunts, and Havens in the Joe Leaphorn
and Jim Chee Mysteries. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.