Hubbell Trading Post Administrative History

Kevin McKibbin 1971-1974

Kevin McKibbin arrived at Hubbell Trading Post in February of 1971 to be Acting Superintendent, coming from Canyon de Chelly where he had been Chief Ranger. He was Acting Superintendent until May, 1971, at which time he was selected to be the Superintendent. Kevin remained at Hubbell Trading Post as Superintendent until August of 1974.

McKibbin was no stranger to the area. Starting in 1938, he would visit the Hopi country every year with his mother to see the snake dances. These annual trips took them across the Navajo Nation. He recalls that he bought his first .22 rifle at the Hubbell Trading Post at Oraibi. He served in the military during the Korean War. While he was at the University of New Mexico, studying for a degree in geology, he took a job with an engineering firm that was doing some surveying in each Navajo community that had a chapter house. The tribe was rebuilding all of the chapter houses, surveying the land on which they stand. This experience gave Kevin a chance to visit most areas of the Navajo Nation and gain a good understanding of the land and the people.

After graduation from the university, he found a job at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory where he stayed from 1959 until 1964, at which time he entered the National Park Service at Timpanogos Cave. By March of 1967, McKibbin was at Navajo National Monument as Supervisory Park Ranger, but in March of 1968 he was transferred to Canyon de Chelly to be Chief Ranger. He remained until February of 1971 when he assumed the position of Acting Superintendent at Hubbell Trading Post. He was Superintendent at Pea Ridge National Military Park, Arkansas, from August 1974 until August 1977. McKibbin returned to the Southwest to become Chief of Interpretation and Protection (Chief Ranger) at Bandelier National Monument until he retired in January 1988.

Kevin recalls that he livened up the barnyard scene at Hubbell Trading Post by importing retired horses and mules from the Grand Canyon. He introduced turkeys and peacocks. Some stabilization work was done on a barn wall and at Wide Reed Ruin. Kevin tried to upgrade the interpretive program, and for a time women employees in period costumes could be seen around the trading post, a touch of living history. An attempt was made to control erosion in the Colorado Wash upstream of Wide Reed Ruin by installing gabions. The north side of the ruin was excavated and mapped.

McKibbin is now retired and he and his wife reside in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Figure 53. Kevin McKibbin, who served first as acting superintendent and then was the fourth superintendent of Hubbell Trading Post NHS, 1971-1974. Friday Kinlicheenie, who started working at the trading post in about 1915, is shown here with Kevin. NPS Photo by Fred Mang, SWRO Library. NG. 74-1782-4-10.