Center Rock, Sheep Flats, Smooth Hill ... and a bunch of utility poles

"Rocky Mountain Rangers" (1940): Center Rock on the left 

Here's a nice shot from one of the best Iverson movies, the 1940 Three Mesquiteers installment Rocky Mountain Rangers, from Republic Pictures. It's directed by George Sherman, with cinematography by Jack Marta — both men worked a lot at Iverson and contributed mightily to documenting its legacy through cinematic images.

Zooming in on the utility poles

One thing I like about this shot is it reveals no fewer than five utility poles on and around Smooth Hill, all the way back in 1940. That means they were in place for the bulk of the B-Western shoots, including throughout the lifespan of the Iverson Movie Ranch Western street. Some of them can occasionally be seen as anachronisms in the background of Westerns, but rarely are they as easy to spot as they are here.


Above is a link to the "Saturday Matinee Double Feature" DVD, which includes the great Iverson movie "Rocky Mountain Rangers" along with the non-Iverson Buck Jones/Tim McCoy Rough Riders movie "Arizona Bound."

Click here for a post that explains what happened to Smooth Hill and also shows what it looked like in the background of the Iverson Movie Ranch Western street.

Another shot from Rocky Mountain Rangers, from approximately the same angle, gives a better look at Center Rock, the light-colored clump of rocks at the left of the shot. Center Rock was in the middle of Sheep Flats, where Iverson's Western town was built a few years later. This cluster of rocks was noteworthy for a number of things, including its isolated location, its protruding ledge and the odd little arch at its base. Somewhat miraculously, Center Rock survived, even as a mobile home park — the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village — was built around it.

Center Rock in its current predicament

Today Center Rock's setting isn't nearly as grand, as it's been stuffed behind fences and barriers and is essentially part of a maintenance facility at the park. I've been especially frustrated by that white plywood, which not only is a bit of an eyesore but also conceals the rock's trademark arch.

Here's a shot of Center Rock in the 1948 Republic serial G-Men Never Forget, showing pretty much the same angle as the contemporary shot above. Looks like the arch would be just about big enough to hide a motorcycle.

Here's what Center Rock looks like today from the other side. The rock was rarely filmed from this side.

Classic Rock: The Pirate Ship

This blog entry is part of a series on "Classic Rocks" — rocks located on the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., that were featured in old movies, cliffhanger serials and early TV shows.

To me this large cluster of rocks looks like a pirate ship with sails a-billowed, or whatever the proper seafaring term would be. When I discovered it a few years ago in a corner of the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village on a visit to the site of the former Iverson Movie Ranch, I initially didn't recognize the formation from any movies or TV shows. But I had a feeling it would eventually turn up — and it did.

"The Lone Ranger" TV show: "Damsels in Distress" (1950)

Among other productions, it's in some episodes of the "Lone Ranger" TV show, including the "Damsels in Distress" episode as seen above. It's also in episodes of "The Roy Rogers Show," including "Ride of the Ranchers." And it's in a couple of major features: the 1937 Shirley Temple movie "Wee Willie Winkie" and Gary Cooper's 1945 Western "Along Came Jones." Then there's "Ghost-Town Gold," a 1936 Three Mesquiteers picture from Republic. And the list goes on.

From other angles, at least one of the rocks that make up the Pirate Ship is much more common. The rock to the left in the above photos is the western side of a rock that's better-known from its northern side: Split Rock, as seen below.

Split Rock

Split Rock now sits in the swimming pool area of the mobile home park, along with the Cave Rocks (Hook Rock and Big B) and a few others. The riders in the above movie still would be roughly on the deck of the pool if they rested in the same spot today. All of these rocks fall more or less in a straight line running north and south, with the billowed sail of the Pirate Ship representing the southern tip. These rocks can sometimes be seen in the background of shots of Iverson's Western town — usually called El Paso Street or Iverson Village — which was to the west of them (to the left in the top two photos). It's hard to get around to the east side of the Pirate Ship these days, due to signs warning about fierce attack dogs.

Whatever its past glory may have been, these days the Pirate Ship is drydocked up in its obscure corner of the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village, keeping as low a profile as it's possible for something that big and grand to keep. But it's part of what was once a heavily filmed section of the Iverson Movie Ranch.

Bugeye and Trapezoid

Bugeye and Trapezoid are a pair of rocks that show up pretty regularly in old B-Westerns. They're not not particularly dramatic but they are good landmarks, easily recognized sitting atop a relatively flat wall-rock that was located alongside a road used frequently for chase sequences and horseback scenes. In the shot above they're seen in the "Lone Ranger" movie, a 1952 release made from the first three episodes of the "Lone Ranger" TV show, originally shot in 1949. They're not clear in this screen shot, but they're the two rocks near the top of the photo, Bugeye on the left and Trapezoid on the right.

Today they live in the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village, located at Topanga and the 118 Freeway in Chatsworth, Calif.