You’ll Never Guess What’s Hiding In This Small Town Arizona Burger King
One of the most surprising and rewarding things to find when traveling is a hidden monument or piece of art in a place you otherwise wouldn’t expect. An itty bitty chapel on the side of the road. A seasonal attraction inside a hotel. A museum attached to a restaurant. It feels like a little secret, like something that can only be seen by people willing to put in the effort to explore the world around them.
Today, we’re going to take at one fast food restaurant located in a tiny northern Arizona town that is hiding a nice gem.
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This is Kayenta, a town of about 5,100 residents on the Navajo Nation, just a few miles shy of the Utah border and the last Arizona town you’ll encounter before reaching Monument Valley.
The code talkers were part of an encrypted communications tactic in the military and were instrumental in transmitting coded messages through little-known languages. The Navajo Code Talkers get the most press but a number of other Indigenous tribes participated in these during the first and second World Wars, such as the Choctaw, Comanche, and Hopi.
The little set up was created by restaurant owner, Richard Mike, whose father was a Navajo Code Talker during World War II.
It took some time to get his father, King Mike, to be open to talking about his experiences but this eventually led Mike to display some of the items in the Burger King. This also became a touching tribute when his father passed away in 1996.
While the display seems to be a decent size, it only represents a fraction of the items King Mike brought back home with him after the war and is a larger collection than what you'll find in actual museums!
Of course, it helps if you purchase something while at the restaurant but it’s pretty cool that a museum exhibit exists in such an ordinary place.
You can find the Navajo Code Talker Display inside the Kayenta Burger King, located near the junction of Highways 160 and 163. See this map for the location.
Monica is a Diné (Navajo) freelance writer and photographer based in the Southwest. Born in Gallup and raised in Phoenix, she is Tódich'ii'nii (Bitter Water People) and Tsi'naajinii (Black Streak Wood People). Monica is a staff writer for Only In Your State, photo editor for The Mesa Legend, and previously a staff writer for The Navajo Post. You can reach her at [email protected]
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