Off the Beaten Path: The Barkley family mansion and barn in "The Big Valley" — and where in tarnation did they drop off Miss Kitty in "Gunsmoke"?

The Barkley family mansion, as seen in the title sequence for "The Big Valley" (1965-1969)

It's fairly well-known that the Barkley family mansion on the TV series "The Big Valley" was located on the old Republic backlot in Studio City, Calif. But I recently uncovered a few tidbits about the sets used for the show that I don't think have been publicized much, if at all.

The Mansion, as seen on "The Big Valley"

This screen shot comes from the episode "Under a Dark Star," which premiered Feb. 9, 1966, during the show's first season. The building on the Republic lot that served as the Barkley mansion tends to be referred to somewhat generically as "The Mansion," or the Mansion set.

"The Mansion," on the Republic backlot in Studio City

This shot of the Mansion is unrelated to "The Big Valley" or any other production, as far as I know, but has been circulated as something of a reference shot of Republic's Mansion set. The photo also appears in Tinsley E. Yarbrough's quintessential book "Those Great Western Movie Locations." Tinsley notes that the mansion was originally built for the 1949 John Wayne movie "The Fighting Kentuckian."

"The Big Valley" — closing credits

Here's the shot of the mansion that appears while the closing credits roll at the end of episodes of "The Big Valley." The one-hour series aired for four seasons and 112 episodes on ABC, from 1965-1969, and was part of a wave of TV Westerns including "Bonanza," "Gunsmoke" and "The Virginian" that helped transition the genre from its primary role in the 1950s as children's entertainment into a well-regarded adult dramatic format.

The Barkley family barn, as seen on "The Big Valley"

The Barkley family's red barn, seen in a number of episodes, was also located on the Republic backlot. The barn was part of the Duchess Ranch set, which happened to be adjacent to the Mansion set. This shot comes from the episode "The Fallen Hawk," which premiered March 2, 1966.

The seemingly small house on the left is part of a large house that was situated near the Mansion. This gray house and the barn effectively made up the Duchess Ranch set, which was used repeatedly by Republic when it was cranking out B-Westerns.

"Santa Fe Passage" (Republic, 1955)

The Mansion set occasionally snuck into the shot in productions that featured the Duchess Ranch set, as in this example from the John Payne-Rod Cameron Western "Santa Fe Passage."

The shot is intended to feature the Duchess Ranch set, but since we know where to look — in the top left corner — it's easy to spot the Mansion peeking around the corner.

Additions and upgrades to the Duchess Ranch barn for "The Big Valley"

Even though the barn as it appears in "The Big Valley" is seen from close to the same angle used in "Santa Fe Passage," its appearance is markedly different in the two productions. For "The Big Valley," along with a new red paint job, the barn had a number of additions built on — including a new covered entry area. A freshly painted new corral area was also set up.

Here's another view of the new covered entry area that's part of the barn set for "The Big Valley."

The barn also sports a new turret on top.

"The Golden Stallion" (Republic, 1949) — Duchess Ranch

The same set was featured in countless productions over the years, usually looking more like a typical dusty old Western ranch set — as it does here in the Roy Rogers and Trigger showcase "The Golden Stallion."

"The Big Valley" — gate to be replicated in the Conejo Valley

The new corral area seen in "The Big Valley" was used to help establish a separate filming location where the producers wanted viewers to believe the Barkley family compound was located, which is seen in the shot below.

"The Big Valley" — the replica gate, from the episode "Image of Yesterday"

The episode containing this screen shot of a replica corral gate — presumably meant to represent the gate back on the Republic lot — premiered Jan. 9, 1967, during season two. This gate appears in a number of episodes, with characters riding through it as they arrive at or depart from the Barkley compound.

"The Big Valley" episode "Image of Yesterday" (1967): Lindero Canyon

The location of the gate is clearly meant to define the setting surrounding the Barkley family home on "The Big Valley." However, in the real world, the gate was located miles away in what is now the suburb of North Ranch, Calif., in the Conejo Valley's Lindero Canyon. It appears that the only part of the "Big Valley" set that stood in this location was the replica of the gate.

A close look at the gate and fence that were set up in Lindero Canyon reveals that they're not a perfect match with the gate at Duchess Ranch in Studio City. While the supports on the crossbar at the top and the diamond-shaped bracing on the gate itself are a good match, the configuration of the fence is a giveaway.

Another bend in the layout of the fence belies the producers' attempt to replicate the Duchess Ranch set.

"The Big Valley" — shot in Lindero Canyon

This scene from "Wagonload of Dreams" was shot near where the replica gate was set up. You may detect commonality in the background hills between this photo and those featuring the gate set. (See the next photo, for example.) This episode first aired Jan. 2, 1967, one week before "Image of Yesterday," and was probably part of the same shoot.

"The Big Valley" — "Cage of Eagles"

The gate and background hills appear again in the episode "Cage of Eagles," which aired later in season two, premiering April 24, 1967. I wonder how long that gate would have stayed in place out there — or whether they kept putting it up and taking it down. More'n likely, they just kept recycling the same footage.

Here again are the two shots above, combined to show that they contain the same rocky bluff in the background. While the bluff is more distinct in the top half of the composite, from "Wagonload of Dreams," the overall shape matches the more distant shot on the bottom, from "Cage of Eagles."

"Branded" TV show (1966) — same bluffs in the background

Lindero Canyon being a bit off the radar, tracking down the location of the "Big Valley" gate set took some doing. But the locale did play host to some filming activity, especially in the mid-1960s — this "Branded" shot being another example.

The bluffs pull one's eye off course sometimes, so here we can make sure we're on the same page. The bluff circled above in red is easy to mix up with the one to its right. The "Branded" shot comes from the episode "Call to Glory, Part 3," which wrapped up a three-part series of episodes that aired in February and March 1966.

The bluff at the right in this shot can also be seen in "The Big Valley," in the shot from "Wagonload of Dreams," where it appears above and to the right of the wagon. The bluff in the center of this shot is not seen in any of the "Big Valley" shots, but surfaces here because the "Branded" scene was shot from a much higher angle.

Google Earth photo: Hiking trail below the Simi Ridge

A photo I found posted on Google Earth, taken by a hiker along a trail in the Lindero Canyon area, captures the same bluffs seen in "Branded" and "The Big Valley," albeit from a different angle.

I've labeled the bluffs appearing in the photo posted by the hiker to show how they match up with the "Branded" shot, which appears below with similar labels.

Here's the "Branded" shot again, labeled to show how the bluffs match up with the photo posted by the hiker.

"Gunsmoke" (1965) — the Miss Kitty dropoff location

The Lindero Canyon shooting location first came to my attention as part of a search by Michael D, one of the readers of this blog. Michael is a "Gunsmoke" fan and mentioned that he had been searching for the remote location seen above, where Miss Kitty gets dropped off by the stagecoach in the episode "Gold Mine."

This clump of rocks in the "Gunsmoke" scene was the focal point of Michael's location hunt. I've since come to think of them as the "Miss Kitty Rocks."

Amanda Blake as Kitty, stranded at the "Miss Kitty Rocks"

In the "Gunsmoke" episode, Miss Kitty is dropped off by the stagecoach and left at the clump of rocks, where it's pertinent to the theme of the episode that she's stranded in the middle of nowhere. The episode premiered on Christmas Day in 1965 as part of "Gunsmoke's" 11th season.

As it turns out, the same clump of rocks also appeared in "Branded," although it was shot from a different direction and so it had a different background — the bluffs forming the Simi Ridge.

The hiker who posted the Google Earth photo taken along the trail above Lindero Canyon, with the bluffs in the background, also posted this shot, taken from close to the same spot. The shot contains the same hills seen in the background during the "Gunsmoke" sequence.

Here's a side-by-side comparison of the hills above Lindero Canyon as they appear in the background of the hiker's photo and in the "Gunsmoke" sequence. The same hills appear in both photos.

While I had a hand in helping to put a few of the pieces together, it was Michael who nailed down the "Gunsmoke" location as Lindero Canyon. Between the two of us, we were able to determine that the site of the original clump of rocks where Miss Kitty was dropped off was approximately here — in what is now a suburban back yard in the community of North Ranch. In an enticing twist, it appears that at least some of the original rocks have survived.

Off the Beaten Path is a series of posts that are not specifically focused on the Iverson Movie Ranch. Typically they're about filming locations in Southern California. Past subjects have included Corriganville, Bell Ranch, Pioneertown and Mulholland Drive, to name a few. You can go directly to the Off the Beaten Path posts by looking up the term "Off the Beaten Path" in the long index of labels at the right of the page, or by clicking here (recommended!).

The stories those old oak trees could tell ...

"The Adventures of Spin and Marty" (1955)

Getting the trees to tell their stories is a relatively untapped branch of Iverson Movie Ranch research, and one that's in some ways more challenging than using rocks to reveal history. After all, trees don't hold their shape over the decades quite as well as rocks do. But there comes a time when a tree is the best person to tell a story. The scene depicted above, from the Disney production "The Adventures of Spin and Marty," is a good example. (Credit Disney for any screen shots from "Spin and Marty" that appear here.)

The same shot, with an Iverson landmark noted

I was skeptical at first when "Spin and Marty" expert Kurt Spitzner suggested that the bear sequence was shot at Iverson. But as is usually the case with Kurt and anything to do with "Spin and Marty," he was absolutely right. Kurt's research pointed to the Oak Flats area of the Upper Iverson, where many of the original oak trees — not all of them, unfortunately — have survived. Kurt spotted a number of rocks in the background that turned out to be known Iverson rocks, with the clincher for me being Rock in the Field, as noted above.

"The Golden Stallion" (1949)

The above shot from Republic's color B-Western "The Golden Stallion," starring Roy Rogers, offers a more familiar view of Rock in the Field. The rock was commonly seen during chase sequences in old Western movies and early Western TV shows, typically appearing to be out in the middle of a field (hence, the name).

1952 aerial photo of the Oak Flats section of the Upper Iverson

With Rock in the Field as a known landmark, the search for the tree in the "Spin and Marty" bear sequence zeroed in on the area seen in the above aerial photo from 1952, which depicts the section of the former Upper Iverson Movie Ranch known as "Oak Flats."

Here's that same 1952 aerial with a few key features noted.

A zoomed-in view of the Oak Flats area — still from the 1952 aerial — shows a number of trees that were identified as possibilities for the bear sequence in "Spin and Marty." The research team, consisting of myself, Kurt and field operative Cliff Roberts, began testing out theories involving Trees A, B and C.

This is what that same area looks like today, in a Google aerial view. A number of large estates now occupy the site of the former Upper Iverson, but by comparing this view with the 1952 aerial above, we can see that many of the native oak trees that made up Oak Flats during the filming era remain in place — including all three trees that were targeted in the "Spin and Marty" research.

Tree A: "Bear Tree," as it appears today

After I obtained photos of all of the trees in question, it became immediately apparent that Tree A — now known in my research as "Bear Tree" — is the mighty four-trunked oak seen in "Spin and Marty."

A closer view of Bear Tree gives some idea of how gnarled it has become in the almost 60 years since "Spin and Marty" was filmed. The chain-link fence in the background is a reminder that the area is all private property — and is now home to an exclusive gated community.

Certain views of the tree can be matched up almost perfectly with shots from the 1955 "Spin and Marty" episode. The shot above includes a distinctive arched limb branching off to the left, and Rock in the Field, although hard to make out here, appears in the background. This shot is a good match for the bear shot from 1955 seen below.

The same arched limb seen in the 2014 photo of Bear Tree is immediately recognizable in the bear sequence from 1955 — the limb looks remarkably similar in these two shots taken almost 60 years apart. You may notice that by 2014 the weight of the limb and its many appendages has caused it to sag, with much of the weight of that part of the tree now resting on the ground.

This is the same view of the bear and its namesake tree from 1955, pointing out the arched limb and noting the location of Rock in the Field.

For comparison, here's the 2014 shot of Bear Tree's arched limb, with the limb and the location of Rock in the Field noted. As I mentioned above, it's harder to make out Rock in the Field from this angle than it was in 1955. Some of that has to do with lighting conditions at the time this photo was taken. But it's still possible to see the rock.

The young actors treed by the bear in the "Spin and Marty" episode are Dee Aaker and Tim Hartnagel, as noted above.

Here's a better look at the boys in the tree.

The bear that took part in the sequence must have been pretty tame. Presumably the producers had containment measures in place, but based on some of these shots it appears as though the bear could have bolted the set if it got a sudden hankering to make a run for nearby Cactus Hill. This is the only time I can recall seeing a live bear at Iverson for the filming of a production — rather than a guy in a bear suit, which is how they would have handled it in the old B-movies.

Interactive map from Kurt Spitzner's "Spin and Marty" site cinchset.com

Please do yourself a favor — especially if you have fond memories of "Spin and Marty" — and check out Kurt's incredibly well-researched cinchset.com website, devoted to all things "Spin and Marty." The site's emphasis is on the first, and widely considered the best, of the three "Spin and Marty" productions, "The Adventures of Spin and Marty," which aired during 1955 as part of "The Mickey Mouse Club." While "Spin and Marty" shot mainly at Disney's Golden Oak Ranch in Newhall — which is still operating as a filming location — Kurt's site includes a number of pages devoted exclusively to "Spin and Marty" location shoots at the Iverson Movie Ranch, which you can access directly by clicking here. His recent research on Bear Tree and the Upper Iverson, including the interactive map seen above, can be found by clicking here and going to the bottom of the page.

Below is a link to the DVD set "Walt Disney Treasures: The Adventures of Spin & Marty," which is the same set I used in my Bear Tree research: