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This Kodachrome dated October 1971 and labeled "Navajo" is the latest dispatch from our peregrinating correspondent Don Cox. Only 400 feet ahead: Baby Rocks! View full size.
The truck in the center could have come out of my childhood. Mr. Tom Houston, as he was known in Columbus Georgia, was the man who turned south Georgia peanut farms into a snack-food empire. He created a marketing and distribution plan, modeled after Coca Cola, and sold his products as far away as here in Monument Valley, Arizona.
Today, Tom's is known as Snyder-Lance and they still buy from those same south Georgia peanut farmers.
A photograph of the Baby Rocks trading post site as it was in 2008 is available at the following link:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jmdspk/2514391758/
The photograph shows only the trading post component [the "Twin Hogans"! - Dave] and a small remainder of the service station. The person who posted the 2008 photograph believes the trading post closed in the 1980s. A comment attached to the bottom of the page indicates that the buildings shown in the 2008 photo were demolished in 2011.
Fun with typography! Now we see how Ɛsso/Ɛnco got that "e" ... is there anything that Shorpy can't teach us?
After studying dream & vapors picture I wonder if it's the same place as Don Cox's photo. Yes the rocks appear the same but there is nothing left of the gas station or service bays. Even if it burned down there would be something left. I mean there isn't even any foundation left.
Also the distance from the road to the rocks appears to be short to fit a gas station, convenience store and and 4 bay repair shop.
[It is the same spot. Baby Rocks was described as "an abandoned trading post" in a newspaper article from 20 years ago. - Dave]
Carved into the base of Baby Rocks:
"H.H. Richardson was here. 1869"
EXXON AMERICAN AMOCO
ENCO Photo NAVAJO
STANDARD SOHIO and MARATHON
BP PURE and CHEVRON
EXXON HUMBLE and ESSO
MOBILGAS all had to go
UNOCAL and CALSO
STANDARD OIL OHIO
They were all STANDARD OIL
They got too big
When the system was rigged
They were all STANDARD OIL
Sherman broke them up and up and up and up
Interesting. I had never heard of Enco, but the 'Happy Motoring' slogan caught my eye. I remember it being tied to Exxon stations, didn't know they were the same company.
[Along with Esso, the progeny of the Standard Oil breakup of 1911. (Standard Oil = S.O. = "Esso.") - Dave]
"Baby Rocks Mesa is named for its eroded walls that resemble clinging babies, at least to whoever coined the name. Conveniently next to the highway, with its own dirt parking area."
A more recent view of the gas station's location:
This is 15 miles southeast of Monument Valley. Spectacular vistas. Be sure to try a sandwich made with Navajo fry bread, if you're in the neighborhood.
If that's a certain Mr. Martine's 1971 Chevy pickup on the hydraulic lift, it is still in the care of his son.
Someone murdered the spelling of that word. Awe-inspiring environs to do it in, though.
We tend to think of the prominence of pickup trucks on American roads as a fairly recent development. Not the case if this photo is any indication!
They outnumber the cars. There’s even one on the hoist in the garage.
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