Classic Rock seen in "The Lone Ranger": Moschops — prehistoric "pre-mammal," beloved childhood toy ... and distinctive movie rock

"The Lone Ranger" (1950)

Here's a rock that doesn't tend to come up very often but I find worth talking about all the same. This sighting in "The Lone Ranger" is one of only a handful of times I've spotted the rock in a movie or TV show. I call it Moschops, after a prehistoric animal with a similar stance. In the photo above, Moschops is the distinctive rock at top-center — from this angle it has sort of a porpoise-head shape. The screen shot is from an episode of the "Lone Ranger" TV show called "Troubled Waters," which premiered March 9, 1950, during the show's first season.

To make sure we're on the same page, this is the same "Lone Ranger" screen shot with Moschops highlighted.

This is what Moschops, the rock, looks like today. It can be seen along the ridge in the South Rim area of the Upper Iverson. It's kind of hard to recognize, but if you look at the "negative space" — the shape of the sky backdrop between Moschops and the rock to the right of it — you should be able to spot the similarities in the outline. As usual, the angle isn't exactly the same.

Here's what the original Moschops supposedly looked like. Maybe some of you had toy versions of it as a kid, with your prehistoric critters. I had a couple of them, which came in bags of "prehistoric mammals," even though it's listed as a "mammal-like reptile."

Here's what the toy version of Moschops looks like.

This post is part of a series on "Classic Rocks" — sandstone giants located on the former Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., that became a part of not only America's physical landscape but also its cultural heritage, through featured roles in old movies, cliffhanger serials and early TV shows. Other entries in the series can be seen by clicking here.

Below is a link to a nice DVD set of the TV show "The Lone Ranger" on Amazon.