"Fury at Showdown" (1957)
I can't ever get too much of this especially weird rock, so here's another star turn by the leading man of the South Rim — usually referred to as Wrench Rock, sometimes called Indian Head or Upper Indian Head ... and referred to by me at one time, before I knew any better, as Bobby. This shot is from United Artists' John Derek Western "Fury at Showdown," and it's pretty definitive Wrench Rock — so much so that I've adopted the shot as the page header for the blog.
Needless to say, Wrench Rock is the unusual rock figure in the center of the photo, hovering over the rider. The larger rock to the left of Wrench Rock came to be known briefly, among Iverson aficionados with an active sense of whimsy (myself, mainly), as Bobby's Girlfriend — inspired by how she always seemed to be batting her eyelashes (presumably an illusion created by some flora growing out of a crack about two-thirds of the way up). The two rocks together form something that has been called Devil's Gate — a reference to the gap between the two rocks, which originated in "Death on Sun Mountain," the second episode of the long-running TV show "Bonanza."
Also in this shot is
Pyramid Peak, which is the pyramid-shaped hill profile in the background, almost perfectly framing the horse's ears. That's the name it has taken on in the research, anyway, but it may in reality be Rocky Peak. Rocky Peak is over in that direction, but I've never been able to nail down exactly which of several peaks in that area is Rocky Peak. At any rate, that pyramid-shaped peak is in a LOT of movies.
Wrench Rock today — largely hidden behind a tree
It's hard to get a decent shot of Wrench Rock from that side these days because a tree has affixed itself to the rock's eastern profile. (That tree is probably the shrub seen in the 1957 shot.) But you can still make out the profile, somewhat, lurking behind the tree.
Click
here for other views of Wrench Rock.
