From Hoot Owl Holler to Indian Country

by Elijah Blair, Pamela F. Brown

"How did you get here?" This question is asked by a lot of people when they hear the Eastern Kentucky accent in the booming voice of Elijah Blair, long time trading post operator around the Navajo Reservation. Would you believe that his older brother's war-time pen pal led Elijah and Claudia, his high school sweetheart and then his newlywed wife, to move from the hills of Eastern Kentucky to the high desert of the Navajo Reservation in Arizona? What does a trading post operator trade for an airplane to go quickly between his trading post on the Navajo Reservation and the family home in Cortez, Colorado to see his wife and children? Do you want flying lessons with that? When there aren't any more Bureau of Reclamation homes to be bought in Page, Arizona, why not buy a business lot and start a trading post in the upstart town on the shores of Lake Powell and the Colorado River? These questions and more are answered by the well told stories that Elijah Blair shares about his extraordinary life from Hoot Owl Holler to Indian Country.