Houck, Arizona

Houck is a census-designated place on the Navajo Nation in Apache County, Arizona, and it carries the name of a mail carrier who stopped here in eighteen seventy-seven. James D. Houck was riding the postal route from Prescott to Fort Wingate when he built a trading post and water tank on the south bank of the Puerco River.

He called the spot Houck's Tank. He left in eighteen eighty-five. The trading post kept his name on the map.

Then, in late nineteen twenty-six, Route Sixty-Six was designated through Houck, and the trickle of travelers turned into a steady stream. Today the community sits along Interstate Forty, a small Navajo Nation chapter in one of the most reservation-heavy counties in the United States.