The Sentries — Guardians of the Gods

"You Can't Fight City Hall," an episode of "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp"

Much of the action in the "Wyatt Earp" episode "You Can't Fight City Hall," which premiered Oct. 20, 1959, takes place on and around the trail leading up into the Garden of the Gods. The shot seen above includes a portion of the trail, in the foreground, along with a number of significant rocks, which I'll highlight below.

This is the same shot from the "Wyatt Earp" episode, with some of the rock features noted.

If you're an Iverson aficionado, you may have already spotted Tower Rock, sometimes called Indian Head, as one of the Three Kings — the one on the right in these shots. The King on the left also has its own identity, as the Pharaoh. I'll discuss the Pharaoh more in an upcoming post.

Virtually all of the rocks seen above, along with the Garden of the Gods Trail itself, remain in place today, thanks to the preservation efforts of a number of organizations that worked together to get Garden of the Gods preserved as a park. The plaque seen above was placed on Hawk Rock just in the past few years to commemorate the filming location, and can be seen as you hike up toward Garden of the Gods.

Garden of the Gods Trail as it appears in recent years, 
including Hawk Rock and the Sentries

The above shot was taken on one of my first visits to the Iverson Movie Ranch, back in 2008, and shows the same trail rising up into Garden of the Gods that's seen in the Wyatt Earp episode. At the left is Hawk Rock, with this shot taken before the plaque was in place. Also in the shot are the Sentries, which keep a vigil on both sides of the trail. I'll highlight them in the next shot.

This shot should help you pinpoint the Sentries, and match them up with their appearance above in the "Wyatt Earp" episode. Hawk Rock was featured regularly in the old movies and early TV shows filmed at Iverson, but the Sentries hardly got any screen time. Even so, they stand tall as guardians of the trail in modern times, and everyone who hikes up into Garden of the Gods from that direction passes between them. I presume the main reason the Sentries and the trail area didn't get filmed much was logistical: The trail is on an incline and doesn't provide a lot of room for movie equipment.

Here's a more recent shot of Hawk Rock showing where the plaque can be found. It's just inside the gate to Garden of the Gods, off Redmesa Road.