Hubbell Trading Post Administrative History

Barry Cooper 1984-1986

Barry Cooper's experience with the Park Service started when he graduated from high school and went to work for the park concessioner at Mesa Verde. He worked summers there all through college, plus one full year when he took some time off to build up his savings. His degree, in geology, is from Colorado State University.

A recent college graduate in 1964, he volunteered for the Peace Corps and was assigned to Chile (a "maturing experience," he notes) where he worked in a rural community development program, attempting to help people in an agrarian reform colony set up a consumer co-op where they would have a place to buy groceries and other items.

On his return from Chile in 1966 he went to work for the Park Service as a seasonal at Mesa Verde. In January of '67 he started work at Petrified Forest as a seasonal. Nine months later he went to the Albright Training Center, then to Kings Canyon for a year on a training assignment. The next three years were at Platt National Park (Chickasaw National Recreation Area), then back to Kings Canyon as a Sub-District Ranger for two years.

After a year at Mendocino with the California State Park System on a ranger exchange program, he transferred to Scotts Bluff National Monument. Cooper went to Haleakala National Park in 1978 as District Ranger of the Crater District, then became Chief Ranger of the park. He assumed the superintendency of Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site in July of 1984. In June of 1986 Cooper moved to Aztec Ruins National Monument to become Superintendent there, and he has been there ever since.

What Barry Cooper feels were the main accomplishments during his tenure at Hubbell Trading Post NHS: He promoted the hiring of American Indians to permanent positions on the staff; four out of five such positions were filled by local Navajo. He initiated the first comprehensive exhibits in the Visitor Center. Fire detection and protection systems were installed in the Administrative/Visitor Center building and the barn. There was restoration work on the bunkhouse, bread oven and many pieces of farm machinery; and storage conditions were improved for a portion of the museum collection.

Barry Cooper recalls Hubbell Trading Post for its unique preservation of a living cultural heritage.

Figure 56. Barry Cooper, Superintendent of Hubbell Trading Post NHS from 1984 to 1986. NPS photo.