It is a traditional Navajo trading post, significant also for association with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; like many trading posts it was operated by Anglos, and mainly served Navajos. The Borrego Pass Trading Post was established in 1927 by Ben and Anna Harvey.[2]
The Borrego Pass community formed around the trading post which was opened in 1927 and was first operated by Ben and Anna Harvey,[3] and then starting in 1935 by Bill and Jean Cousins.[4] It was sold in 1939 to Don and Fern Smouse who operated it for over forty years. The trading post was named after the nearby Borrego Pass[5] an ancient water gap, across the Continental Divide,[6] that cuts into the Dutton Plateau.[7]
It was recommended for National Register listing in 2010.[2]
Location: Building 1601, County Road 19
Other names: Tiish Bito (Snake Spring); Dibe Yazhi Habitiin (Lamb Route)
Historic function: Commerce/trade; Religion
Historic subfunction: Department Store; Religious Structure
^Cousins, Jean; Cousins, Bill and Engels, Mary Tate (1996) Tales from Wide Ruins: Jean and Bill Cousins, traders Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock, Texas, pages 77–85, ISBN0-89672-368-2
^Julyan, Robert (1998) "Borrego Pass" The Place Names of New Mexico (revised edition) University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, page 46, ISBN0-8263-1689-1
^Lekson, Stephen H. (1999) The Chaco meridian: centers of political power in the ancient Southwest Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, California, page 119, ISBN0-7619-9180-8