Homolovi State Park, the Winslow Arts Trust (WAT), and the Old Trails Museum – in cooperation with the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office – have created a unique partnership to host a major exhibition in northeastern Arizona: Life Along the River: Ancestral Hopi at Homol’ovi.

Join us for the exhibition’s Grand Opening on January 18, 2020, at 2 pm at the WAT Museum at La Posada Hotel, 333 East 2nd Street. The event will include the Hopi Polequaptewa Dancers and comments by Dr. E. Charles Adams. Life Along the River: Ancestral Hopi at Homol’ovi will be on display through January 10, 2021.

Created by the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona in Tucson, the exhibition synthesizes more than thirty years of archaeological research by the museum’s Homol’ovi Research Program. Through images, maps, and the voices of present-day Hopi, it tells the story of the people who lived in seven villages along the Little Colorado River – near what is now Winslow – in the 1300s. Present-day Hopi refer to the former settlements nestled among the small, raised buttes as Homol’ovi, “place of little hills.”

Dr. Adams, now retired, directed the Homol’ovi Research Program from 1985 to 2017. “We found the (archaeological) record remarkably intact and fully able to tell the stories of the place,” said Adams, who credits the program’s work with revealing a timeline for life at Homol’ovi, the relationships among the area’s inhabitants, and the importance of the river in their lifeways.

The exhibition also illustrates how collaborative research with descendant communities increases our understanding of the past and enhances the interpretation of archaeological resources. In recognition of its important archaeological resources, the Homol’ovi area became Arizona’s first archaeological state park in 1986 through a wide-ranging partnership between the Hopi people, state agencies, the governor’s office, local civic leaders, and avocational archaeologists.

After viewing Life Along the River: Ancestral Hopi at Homol’ovi, attendees are invited to visit Homolovi State Park and see how the pueblos and artifacts have been protected. Take the short 10-minute drive from the WAT Museum by going east on 2nd Street to 87 North; turn left and take 87 North to Winslow-Polacca Road; and turn left to arrive at the Homolovi State Park Visitors Center (see map below).

Life Along the River: Ancestral Hopi at Homol’ovi is made possible in Winslow by Arizona State Parks & Trails/Homolovi State Park, the Winslow Arts Trust, the Old Trails Museum, the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, and the Arizona State Museum. For the latest updates on related programs throughout 2020, check the OTM Website or go to https://azstateparks.com/homolovi/events.

The Old Trails Museum’s 2020 historical calendar, La Posada: The History of a Harvey Grand Hotel, is on sale now! The 2020 edition – still priced at $10 – is available at the museum, La Posada HotelArizona 66 Trading Company, On the Corner Gifts, Winslow Dental, and the Winslow Visitors Center/Hubbell Trading Post. Your OTM Store purchases are sales-tax-free, support the museum, and keep your shopping dollars local!

The 2020 edition explores the original incarnation of Winslow’s La Posada, the last of the Santa Fe-owned and Harvey-operated grand hotels to open, which it did on May 14, 1930. The calendar also previews an OTM exhibit opening in 2020 – La Posada: The Evolution of a Harvey Grand Hotel – which will include the story of the hotel’s rebirth and current success as well.

The calendar uses historic images to illustrate the hotel’s original purpose and design, historic heyday, and dormant period as a Santa Fe office building. Photographs are from the OTM Collections unless otherwise noted. Sources include Winslow Mail articles, adapted text from OTM publications and exhibits, and archival material from the museum and other repositories throughout Arizona.

Old Trails Museum Director Ann-Mary Lutzick developed this calendar, and International Minute Press of Flagstaff did the graphic design and printing. The museum thanks Colleen Hyde at the Grand Canyon National Park Museum, Melissa Lawton with the Museum of Northern Arizona, and Hannah Abelbeck with the New Mexico History Museum-Palace of the Governors for their help with images, and Kim Gould and Dan Lutzick for their invaluable feedback.

OTM’s annual historical calendar is a fundraiser for the museum thanks to our generous advertisers: Arizona 66 Trading Company, Bojo’s Grill & Sports Club, Casey’s, Cox’s Automotive, Dominique’s On the Corner, Harley Hendricks Realty, Kenna Properties, La Posada Hotel, the Leavitt Group, Mojo Coffee Company, Motor Palace Mercantile, Snowdrift Art Space, and the Winslow Chamber of Commerce.