As we move down the Mother Road of Route 66 through Flagstaff, we find that one of the stops at Lupton is the Teepee Trading Post. It represents of a number of roadside attractions that still populate the map along the Mother Road in Arizona. While Teepee is a kitschy tourist stop, the idea of a trading post at this location goes back several years.
The Navajo returned from Fort Sumner, N.M. following the Long Walk — the tragic event that happened in 1864 and the return around 1868. With the return home, some of the Navajo established trading posts in this area of present-day Lupton.
The location became particularly important when the Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad established a railroad station there in 1905. It wouldn’t be too much later that that National Old Trails Highway, the precursor to Route 66, would pass through this area. In 1926, Route 66 would follow this same path.
Today, the shops and stops here like the Teepee Trading Post are fun and funky places Though teepees, or tipis, are structures traditionally used by the Plains and Great Plains Indians, the symbol and name shows up in the Southwest where the structure is not used. The familiar form and imagery — depictions of Indians in headdresses also did not match Southwest tribes — still became common ways to attract tourists.
