San Juan County • At the end of a labyrinth of red dirt roads and surrounded by the rusty cliffs of nearby mesas, Marthleen and Shuan Stephenson live on an isolated desert homestead on the sprawling Navajo Nation.
Until last month, you couldn’t find their home using a traditional address. Instead, the directions went like this: “Turn off U.S. Highway 191 between mile markers 1 and 2. It’s a blue house with a tan roof.”
The couple felt like they were living in the dark, separated from modern times.
Like the Stephensons’, most homes on the Navajo Nation in southeastern Utah lack street addresses.