ELEVATION:  6000'

LOCATION:    In the juniper-forested hill country separating Chinle Valley from the Rio Puerco lies the trading center called Wide Ruins, named for the great Anasazi ruin, Kinteel, and situated on the grounds of Kinteel. (Arizona)

ESTABLISHED:  In the early 1900s.  In October of 1938, William and Sallie Lippincott purchased what was then called Kinteel Trading Post.  The Lippincotts deserve the credit for improving and publicizing the rug industry in the southeast corner of the Reservation.  Their vegetal dye experiments and encouragement of master weaving resulted in a superior textile in the years that followed.  Sallie kept on hand a current plant recipe book which weavers could consult; Bill promoted a two-room addition to the schoolhouse so that weaving classes could be taught to the younger women - promising to buy their class projects; and jointly, they conceived the idea of holding craft festivals which they hosted in their home, complete with refreshments, home movies, gifts for the children, and awards for the best weaving and silversmithing.

Except for an absence during World War II when Bill served as a naval commander in San Diego, the popular Lippincotts traded at Wide Ruins until the fall of 1950, when they sold out to the Navajo Tribe.  A few years later the Foutz family assumed ownership, and the post was operated by Phil Foutz under the banner of Progressive Mercantile.

THE RUG:   The Wide Ruins district is the second all vegetal dye center on the Reservation; it is also one of the most recent in regional recognition, being developed by Sallie Lippincott in 1939-1940.  The quality of the rug owes its origin to a desire of the Lippincotts to revitalize a poor rug market among the area weavers.  At Sallie's personal preference and insistence, the traders began their program by announcing that they would no longer buy a rug with a border.  Undoubtedly influenced by McSparron and the Chinle success, they discouraged elaborate designs, and instead promoted simple horizontal stripes and bands constructed of total vegetal colors and handspun wool.

The Wide Ruins rugs that are produced today continue in fine workmanship; all handspun, beautifully dyed and woven.  The natural colors of gray and white are used sparingly, but the blending of subtle shades of seemingly endless plant combinations, defies description.  Soft pastels of exquisite pinks, yellow, beige, deep corals, rich grays, olive greens, multiple tones of tans and browns and hues of lilac all combine to make the Wide Ruins rug a popular choice. 

To complement the colors, the Wide Ruins weaving design is Early Classic Period  stripes and bands situated across a borderless product.  Overall simplicity is intended, although ornamentation is quite complex.  Finely constructed outlines, hatch work, "wavy lines" insertions, and beading techniques usually provide extraordinary embroidery arrangements.  The panel designs are simplified forms of arrows, chevrons and squash blossoms.  The attention to detail in the design approaches true artful expression.

As evidenced by their product, Wide Ruins weavers practice their craft with the utmost diligence, always striving for quality construction and continually searching for the yet undiscovered tinge that might lie in the dye-bath of a wild plum or juniper seed.

Source:  Posts and Rugs, The Story of Navajo Rugs and Their Homes, by H. L. James, Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, Third Printing 1979; Copyright 1976 by Southwest Parks and Monuments Association. (Pages 78, 80, 81)