About 50 million years ago: Wind and water start shaping Monument Valley.
Before 1400: The Anasazi occupy Monument Valley and build many cliff dwellings and food-storage sites. Then they vanish.
After 1400: The Diné take up residence in and around Monument Valley. Other native tribes take to calling them the Navajo.
1863: The U.S. government orders the relocation of all Navajos to a reservation at Fort Sumner in Bosque Redondo, N.M.
1868: A larger Navajo reservation is established, and an 1884 expansion includes Monument Valley. Eventually the reservation, also known as the Navajo Nation, includes about 27,000 square miles of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.
1925: Harry Goulding and his wife, Leone, establish a trading post near the northwest rim of the valley.
1938: Eager to bring money to the Depression-ravaged valley, Harry Goulding goes to Hollywood bearing photos of Monument Valley and bluffs his way into a meeting with famed director John Ford. Soon afterward, Ford's cast and crew arrive in the valley to make "Stagecoach."
1939: "Stagecoach" revives the western genre. Ford goes on to make numerous movies in the valley.