This summer has been completely wonderful so far.  While we’ve experience and witnessed some very hard things, I’ve seen a lot of growth and understanding among my daughters, my husband and myself.  We’ve traveled a bit, some of us more than others and I’ve finally been able to mark off a small dream…. my youngest 3 daughters, our exchange student and I visited the Grand Canyon!  But this post is about a place we found on the way to the Grand Canyon.

Welcome to Arizona and the Navajo Tribal Lands

On the way to the Grand Canyon we stopped in a small Arizona town called Kayenta.  A few miles north of the town, a billboard caught my attention and we decided to stop at the Burger King.  The Burger King?  Yes!

Inside the Burger King in Kayenta, Arizona is a tribute to the Navajo Code Talkers of World War 2.  Just this past year my daughters had learned about the code talkers in history, and I am thrilled to have found this small museum display.  There are glass case and framed art & information all about the part that the Navajo Code Talker played in the second World War.  Many of these men were from this area and the community holds a wealth of information about their opportunity to serve in the US Military, despite the way they have been wronged by our country’s government in the past.

While there are glass cases inside the Burger King, just outside, on the other side of the parking lot there was another museum building full of WW2 artifacts, a video and many Navajo historic displays.

I was able to find this book at our local library. It is a very gentle introduction to the contribution of the Navajo people in World War 2

Outside that small museum there were also 2 model hogans

We spent about an hour and a half at this place and I want to recommend to you, if you are passing through north eastern Arizona on  Highway 160, stop in at the Burger King for some lunch and a little history.

So tell me, have you ever driven through Kayenta?  Visited the Navajo Code Talkers Museum?