The many old trading posts scattered along Route 66 through northern New Mexico and Arizona, afforded visitors an opportunity to purchase unique mementos of their travels and perhaps observe or even interact with native artisans inside a relatively familiar commercial setting. One such operation was Yah-Ta-Hey Trading Company on US 491, just off Route 66 north of Gallup, New Mexico. Like most trading posts, it was open to any casual tourist who might stop by out of curiosity or hoping to find a special treasure, but its primary business was with the local Indian communities. The VanderWagen family that ran this post into the early 2000s had been traders in the area for a century, providing generations of Navajo and Zuni families with pretty much everything they could not grow or produce themselves: canned goods, cloth, saddles, tools and firearms, etc. In payment, the trader accepted wool, livestock, rugs and blankets, baskets, silver and turquoise jewelry, and other reservation goods.