We started to collect navajo rugs in 1972, shortly after we came to New Mexico to attend graduate school. We were young, employed, debt free and looking for adventure. As a joke we sometimes refer to those days as BE as in Before Erik.
We bought most of our navajo rugs at the Crownpoint rug auction. This auction continues to this day but was relitively new back then. Tony Hillerman was just another guy when he attended. The auctions were always held in the elementary school on a Friday evening. We would get off work, gather friends who shared our interest in navajo rugs, and try to get there by 3-4 PM. That way we could watch all the rugs being checked in, look at them closely ourselves, and have a great time.
The 30 or more rugs we collected have been in storage for the last 25 years. Maybe this will provide an incentive to get them out, see if they are damaged and share stories from the acquisition days.