2019 four corners - part 7, Utah: Monument Valley's one couple who changed it all - Travel With Us

In 1921, Harry Goulding and his young bride Leone (that he called Mike) purchased 640 acres next to Monument Valley. They spent their first years trading with the Navajo people out of their tent. In 1928, the Gouldings completed construction of an old stone trading post with an apartment upstairs. The building has been converted over to a museum with photographs and memorabilia from when they lived there. We’ll see more of the actual buildings in the next post.

After WWI where Harry was in France in an engineering division, as a 26-year old cowboy, he became a sheep inspector for the federal government. Leone was from Durango and was a lot younger. He kept writing her letters telling her about what he was seeing as he rode around and camped in the Four Corners area, but he had a hard time remembering how to spell her name, so he started calling her Mike. They married 12 days after she turned 18.

He kept telling her about this indescribable area filled with dramatic buttes that rose abruptly hundreds of feet off the desert floor. If they could start a sheep ranch and trading post there, he thought it would be like heaven. But they couldn’t, because the land was part of the Paiute Indian Reservation and not for sale.

Then change happened. That very year the state of Utah swapped the Paiutes better farmland farther north, and a few parcels from the old Paiute Strip were put up for public sale. For $320, Harry bought 640 acres, one square mile, on the southern tip of Utah, just across the Arizona border and the vast Navajo Nation. They moved and he started his trading post.

The depression years, along with a drought that dropped the price of lamb and wool, made things very tough for the Navajo’s. Harry and Mike caught word that a movie director, John Ford, was looking for a place to film a western movie. They took off for Hollywood, taking photos of the Monument Valley area taken by Josef Muench with them. John Ford fell in love with the area from these photos and the Gouldings descriptions.

Josef was born in Bavaria in 1904 and started taking pictures 11 years later. In 1928 he came to the U.S. with his brother, settling in Detroit and working on the production line for Ford Motor. In 1930 he bought his first Model T and came west. He took numerous pictures in Arizona and eventually Monument Valley.

one of Josef’s pictures that John Ford saw—the Mitten structure that we missed as we drove through Valley of the Gods

Within a couple of weeks, filming of the classic, award winning “Stagecoach” movie began. The lead actor of the film was the young John Wayne. Both John Ford and John Wayne returned again and again to this area for other films.

Harry and Mike were lifelong friends of the Navajo people. Even today there are many services on the Goulding’s property that assist the Navajo people. Staff in the dining room, gift shop, and other places around Goulding’s Lodge are natives from the area. Donations from the Gouldings Museum goes toward a scholarship fund for Monument Valley Students.

Let’s look at some more information from the visitors center.

Until roads were built so trucks could bring in supplies, this Trading Post was the only place the local natives could trade their handcrafted jewelry, rugs, and other items for food and basic necessities..

Harry and Mike brought in missionary doctors to care for the local people and then built a small hospital for the community. Their friendship with the Navajos endured well after they retired from the trading business.

When movie makers came, the Gouldings wanted to accommodate their guests so they built guest cabins and later a lodge. The dining room provided hearty meals to guests, crew members, and actors. And us!

Two weeks out from my birthday, I splurged on Navajo frybread (yum) apples, whipped cream, and ice cream with a fresh strawberry. What a treat!

The Gouldings started offering tours into Monument Valley, introducing visitors to the breathtaking sandstone monoliths and mesas. The couple lived here until 1962 when they had to move because of Henry’s health. When they left, they gifted the homestead to Knox College in Illinois, a liberal arts college whose president was an Army buddy of Harry’s. Mike returned to the area after Harry passed away. Theirs was a love story for the ages.

Thanks to this couple, people from all over the world know about Monument Valley and can visit to explore its natural wonders.

first people in this area

First local inhabitants were the Ancient Pueblo People that we’ll see more about when we’re at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. They lived in stone structures hidden within the walls of canyons and rock formations throughout the Southwest.

The Navajos who live here now are one of the largest Native American tribes in the U.S. They probably migrated here around 1400 A.D. from northeastern Canada and eastern Alaska. When the Spanish settlers came here with their sheep, the Navajo began using wool to spin yarn to weave rugs.

With their rugs (thanks to the Spanish and their sheep), they were able to trade at the Gouldings’ Trading Post, a valuable resource for the Navajo people in Monument Valley. With the film industry coming to the area in the late 1930s, the Navajos had more opportunities to support themselves.

John Ford and his movies

The Depression hit this area hard. Harry and Mike became concerned for their friends and wanted to come up with a way to bring revenue to the area. With their last $60, they set off for Hollywood and finally got to meet with director John Ford.

With persistence and pictures of the valley, Mr. Ford gave in and decided to film his next feature film in Monument Valley. In 1938, just one month after the Gouldings and Ford met, production started on the movie “Stagecoach.”