Shorpy was donated a collection of color transparencies by Don Cox, including the Coors drinking skier the other day. We’ll peruse a few here and there, including this one near Monument Valley, which features an Enco gas station and lots of pickup trucks. Well, in that part of the world, they weren’t exactly a fad.
And there’s a sign for “baby rocks”, among other attractions. I bet they’re all grown up by now, though.
I see a duo of delightful Dodges , and is that a ’57 Chevy way in the back at the far right ?
It looks more like a 55 Oldsmobile. And, there’s a Tom’s Snacks Chevy C50/60 route truck.
An Enco service station. That must have been just before the name was changed to Exxon.
I’ve been there – that same year.
For three weeks every July or August, my father piled us into a Chrysler New Yorker, attached a pop-up trailer to the hitch, and drove for three weeks west from Chicago. That year, we ended up in Monument Valley. It was pretty primitive at the time. Roads weren’t much more than red paths over the rocks. The only paved road was to the campground where low brick rest rooms and a visitor’s center had been built. There weren’t many people there, baking in the summer heat and like many places I experienced as a kid, it was easy to escape crowds.
The scenery is outstanding and while driving around on the dirt roads, once used by film crews making John Wayne movies, we passed many Navajo hogans that perfectly blended in to the landscape. Suddenly, we saw a boy our age, running up to our car, and we stopped when we realized he wanted us to stop. “Do you have any candy?” Of course we did! We didn’t leave on vacation without lots of hard candy. Chocolates melt, but we had dozens of hard candies we happily gave him. It made quite an impression on us.
We stayed at Monument Valley for three days. A Navajo doll, handmade with real human hair was bought for my little sister. I have it in my china cabinet when she gave it to my kids a few years ago. Homemade clothes, Navajo bead jewelry and leather fingers and moccasins.
This filling station was where we bought ice. We’d stopped more than once to tank up, explore, grab a map or two, and buy any snacks. There are many miles between towns in this part of Utah/Arizona, so we saw these filling stations as a life-sustaining road oasis.
This is on US 160 near Kayenta, AZ. It’s all completely gone. The trading post is believed to have closed in the ’80’s and the buildings demolished in about 2008. Nothing left. I believe these rock formations are called the Baby Rocks. The location is about 125 miles from Monument Valley. How does an oasis like this go out of business?
BTW I believe the picture was taken in 1971.
Here is the Google maps street view (as far as I can tell) if anyone is interested: https://goo.gl/maps/bWBphB3apnwzbVQx5
And the view in 2008: https://goo.gl/maps/bAMrwZ9buMBxVKuj9
Speaking of Monument Valley…a currently-running Safelite auto glass commercial tries to proclaim that wherever you are (in the commercial, “you” is a woman photographer), Safelite is nearby to help if your auto glass needs replacement. The scene where her windshield gets cracked is Monument Valley.
However, searching the Safelite web site with “Monument Valley” as a location comes up empty. No location nearby:
“Oh no!…We could not find any stores near the Monument Valley AZ 84536 area
Please try again or contact us.”
Advertising version of poetic license???
Five swamp coolers keeping the station comfortable in the summer. Halfway between St. George and Durango, not a whole lot of people around then and now.
When did color-matched wheels stop being a thing? I feel like that could add a lot of brand identity to a company using otherwise monochrome trucks.