Back in the days before Gorge Cabin, 'twas another cabin in the Iverson Gorge — smaller, humbler and older

"Unknown Valley" (1933) — the first known cabin in the Iverson Gorge

Three years before the Gorge Cabin was built on the Iverson Movie Ranch in 1936, an earlier cabin existed briefly in the same general location. I know of only one film appearance for this much smaller cabin, in the old Buck Jones B-Western "Unknown Valley," from Columbia, as seen above. This was the first known movie cabin in the Iverson Gorge. In the above screen shot, the unusual "tower" rock in the background, near top left, provided the clue needed to determine where the cabin was located.

I was able to identify this rock, which I have at times referred to as Doglips, as the same rock seen in the background in the "Unknown Valley" shot above. The rock still stands in the Iverson Gorge, and can be seen easily from Redmesa Road in Chatsworth. The above two shots are from approximately, but not exactly, the same angle — close enough to compare the features. You may not spot the similarities at first, but a careful examination of the rock's nooks and crannies leaves no doubt. Incidentally, the dark rock to the left of Doglips in the recent photo is Lone Ranger Rock, and in the top left corner of both of the above shots is the southeast corner of Garden of the Gods.

A view of Doglips from a different angle — from the east — might begin to explain its nickname, with the left half of the rock showing canine characteristics. It's a distinctive rock from every angle, and has come up before on this blog. The rock, which has also been called Chinless Wonder, has made appearances in a number of movies and TV shows. Click here for a couple of other angles — including an even better look at the rock's "lips."

Here's another view of the circa 1933 "Unknown Valley" cabin. I believe the rock seen behind it from this angle no longer exists, with a part of the Cal West Townhomes development now occupying the space. As for the cabin itself, it may have been built just for that one movie and then torn down.

One more view of the old cabin reveals that it was next to a V-shaped tree — another Iverson feature that has been lost to development.

Off the Beaten Path: When the "Bonanza" gang rode into the Bell Location Ranch

One of the most mysterious of the old movie ranches is the Bell Location Ranch, now hidden behind locked gates in the Santa Susana Mountains above Box Canyon, between Chatsworth and Simi Valley, Calif., just a few miles southwest of the Iverson Movie Ranch.

Bell Ranch's old Western town included a white mansion, sometimes seen as a boarding house, at the east end of town. In this vintage shot, you can see the same rock formation in the background that appears in the first photo. 

This distinctive strata formation is one of the keys to navigating the former Bell Location Ranch, as it sits to the east of what was once the Western town. However, no traces of the town remain in place today.

"Screaming Rabbit Rock"

Positioned atop the strata formation is one of my favorite movie rocks, which I call Screaming Rabbit Rock.

The area is all but impossible to access today, carved up into privately owned parcels and fiercely protected by local residents who value their relative seclusion on the outskirts of the L.A. metro area.

Arrival scene from the "Bonanza" episode "The Rattlesnake Brigade" (Dec. 5, 1971)

A portion of the old Bell Ranch was the focus of a recent film history expedition, and I was lucky enough to be a part of it. The trek produced a number of revelations, including identifying shooting sites for the "Bonanza" episode "The Rattlesnake Brigade." In the above screen shot, Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) and a couple of his buddies arrive to try to rescue a group of young people being held hostage.

Here's what that same site looks like today — still largely unspoiled, but with a lot more foliage now. You may be able to recognize many of the rocks from the "Bonanza" shot, and the road, despite being lined now with heavy vegetation, also matches. (Click on the photos to enlarge them for a better look.)

Recent shot: The same rocks seen in the "Bonanza" episode

I ran across some controversy online about whether these "Bonanza" scenes were shot at Bell Ranch or on the Spahn Movie Ranch, which was located several miles away. I hope these matching shots will help settle the dispute, as the episode was definitely shot at Bell Ranch and not at Spahn.

The rocks as they appear in "Bonanza"

I understand why some people enjoy believing things were filmed at Spahn Ranch because of the site's mystique and notoriety following the Manson Family murders. But it turns out that the majority of what has been attributed to filming at Spahn was NOT in fact filmed there — including this "Bonanza" episode.

Here's a shot of Lorne Greene arriving at the main shooting area on Bell Ranch's lower plateau, the one relatively small section of Bell where almost all of the location work for the "Bonanza" episode was done.

This scene takes place just a few feet from where the long shot of the arrival was taped. This sequence begins to provide a look at the formidable bluffs that loomed above the Bell Ranch filming areas. The protruding rock toward the right of the shot has been nicknamed both "the Three-Meter Board" and "the Ten-Meter Board" by area film historians. In reality it's much more than 10 meters high, so take your pick.

Here are some of those same rocks today. If the However-Many-Meter Board, in the top right corner, leaves any doubt about the match, you should be able to match up some of the other rocks, including the one near the lower right corner of the above shot, which is partially visible above the mane of the horse at the right in the "Bonanza" shot. The rock closest to the center of the above shot (a little left of center), which has distinctive horizontal markings, also appears near the center of the "Bonanza" shot.

More of Bell Ranch's rugged bluffs are seen in this screen shot from "Rattlesnake Brigade." The shot shows a couple of the bad guys, who at this point had their young hostages inside the wagon.

Here are those same bluffs today — not exactly the same angle, but it should be close enough to make the match.

In this shot from the "Bonanza" episode a sentry is posted atop a huge boulder, near the top center of the shot.

Here's that same rock today. This rock is also partially visible in the shot of the wagon, above, at the left edge of the shot.

By the way, check out this dude in the background. Is that a face only a mother could love, or what? Regardless, it's a good marker rock for figuring out where you are at Bell Ranch. I call it "Bell Boy."

This shot from "The Rattlesnake Brigade" features another section of the Bell Ranch bluffs, along with a cabin that stood at the site at the time of the shoot, in 1971. In this scene the gang, which is now keeping the hostages in the cabin, confronts Ben Cartwright and his colleagues in an attempt to collect a ransom. That's Neville Brand on the left, playing Doyle, leader of the outlaw gang. Brand, who made his last of three "Bonanza" appearances in this episode, is probably best known for his starring role in the 1960s TV series "Laredo."

This shot from the recent Bell Ranch expedition shows that same section of bluffs as it appears today. Needless to say, the cabin is no longer standing.

I couldn't find any definitive trace of the cabin, but these partially burned boards were in the area, and I suppose they could have been a part of the structure.

The hostages are brought out of the cabin to prove they're OK. Do we need a spoiler alert for a TV show that's more than 40 years old? Consider yourself alerted.

Hoss Cartwright got involved in the hostage rescue too, bringing Dan Blocker to Bell Ranch.

Little Joe — Michael Landon, on location at Bell and doing his own stunts — gets the drop on one of the hostage takers.

Happy ending, sort of: The hostages are freed as the bodies pile up.

Here's another view of the area where the drama played out, as it appears today.

Click here to see a blog post about an episode of "Star Trek: The Original Series" that was also shot on Bell Ranch's lower plateau.

Off the Beaten Path is a series of posts that are not specifically focused on the usual subject matter of this blog, the Iverson Movie Ranch. You can go directly to the Off the Beaten Path posts by looking up the term in the long index of labels at the right of the page, or by clicking here.

A Western hero rides off into the sunset: Dale Robertson, 1923-2013

I was sorry to hear today that Dale Robertson, a Western hero of both the big screen and the little one, has died. Robertson, whose credits in Westerns are virtually endless, died Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, at age 89 of complications from lung cancer and pneumonia.

Here's a clip that someone put up on YouTube as a tribute to Robertson. The video I originally linked to, which included some Iverson footage, has since been taken down from YouTube — apologies to any of my readers who tried to watch it and were disappointed to discover that it was gone. This newer one doesn't appear to contain Iverson, but it makes up for it by being a little weird. The location clips here are mainly Vasquez Rocks, but the highlight may be the  "Amazing Grace"/"House of the Rising Sun" mashup in the second half:



A number of the Western productions in Robertson's long career were shot at least in part at the Iverson Movie Ranch, with the ones that come to mind right away being the TV shows "Tales of Wells Fargo" and "Death Valley Days." Robertson's series "Iron Horse" also supposedly shot at Iverson, but I've only found a few episodes so far and the movie ranch has yet to turn up.

One movie I know was shot partially at Iverson that features Robertson is "Fighting Man of the Plains" (1949), a Randolph Scott movie in which Robertson has a small role as the outlaw Jesse James.

The Dale Robertson movie "Sitting Bull" (1954) is often cited as an Iverson production, but I have to refute that claim — I've gone through the movie and didn't find any Iverson. I tend to believe the other citation that turns up for this movie, which is that it's shot around Durango, Mexico.

Similarly, the 1964 Paramount Western "Law of the Lawless," starring Robertson along with Yvonne De Carlo, has been cited as Iverson, but I believe that's another erroneous listing.

Robertson acted from the late 1940s into the 1990s — a career spanning six decades. Even with more than 60 movies under his belt — most of them Westerns — he made his biggest impact on TV, including his early success on "Tales of Wells Fargo." Later in his career he appeared in shows including "Dynasty," "Dallas," "Matt Houston" and "Murder, She Wrote," and he headlined his own series, "J.J. Starbuck," for a short time in the late 1980s.

Where did Superman grow up? Right here in Chatsworth, Calif. ... sort of

Kirk Alyn — the original movie "Superman" — at
the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth

The family of the original movie "Superman" joined us last night for a gathering of the Chatsworth Historical Society at the group's Chatsworth history museum, located at the far west end of Devonshire. The centerpiece of the event was a screening of some clips featuring Kirk Alyn in the 1948 Columbia serial "Superman," which filmed most of its location shots at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth. The serial also starred Noel Neill as Lois Lane and Tommy Bond — formerly the neighborhood bully "Butch" in the "Our Gang" comedies — as cub reporter Jimmy Olsen.

Kirk Alyn and Jean Dean in Radar Patrol vs. Spy King"

A teaser for the event ran on northridge.patch.com with the headline "Shocking! Superman Grew Up in Chatsworth!" That headline was apparently what caught the attention of Alyn's family and brought them out to the CHS meeting ... a happy ending of sorts — which is just what we've come to expect from Superman. Multiple generations of "Superman's" — well, Alyn's — brood were on hand, including his daughter, grandkids and even a great-granddaughter ... along with spouses. Alyn himself died in Texas in 1999 at age 88 after a distinguished career that included not only the two Columbia "Superman" serials (the second being "Atom Man vs. Superman" in 1950) but also a song-and-dance career in vaudeville and on Broadway along with lead roles in a number of other serials, including Republic's "Radar Patrol vs. Spy King" (1949) and Columbia's "Blackhawk" (1952).

Below is a short YouTube clip from early in the original "Superman" serial, which includes the production's first shots of Iverson. After a brief animated segment, the Iverson material starts at about the 18-second mark, with a scene in which an animated mini-rocket containing the infant Superman falls to Earth on the old Upper Iverson.



Among the Iverson Movie Ranch landmarks appearing in the clip: Rock in the Field, seen in the background in the initial shots of the couple in their old truck (starting around 0:21); Rocky Peak — or Pyramid Peak — at 0:29; the Molar (blink and you'll miss it, with the mini-rocket disappearing behind it at 0:34); and the Upper Iverson's Oak Grove, throughout.

But even with all those impressive landmarks, naturally, it's the infant Superman who steals the show.

I have more to write about the Iverson location work in the "Superman" serials — the second one, "Atom Man vs. Superman," is an even better showcase for the movie ranch. Check back for future posts — including this one with more about the 1948 "Superman." I'll also point you to a previous entry about the 1950s TV show "Adventures of Superman," which shot at least one memorable episode at Iverson. (Click here to see that entry.)

It's one of those movies where the rocks have faces — oh, do they ever!

"The Trusted Outlaw" (1937)

The shots in this blog entry are all from the Bob Steele B-Western "The Trusted Outlaw," filmed at the Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif. Your mileage may vary, and probably will — and that's probably a good thing. But I'm seeing faces and more faces in these rocks. For example, in the above shot I can make out at least four or five characters, starting with what looks kind of like a claymation clown with multiple faces, on the right side of the shot.

This thing.

And plenty of other "characters." Just look around.

This is a nice view looking southwest across Sheep Flats, with Split Rock on the left (in shadow), Hook Rock on the right and Church Rock in the distance (the small dark, almost horizontal rock visible above the treeline, almost directly above the horse). But what's going on ...

... here?

Here's another screen shot where I think a lot of people would be able to find interesting faces if they wanted to, even though the shot's a little dark. Below are some of my favorite "rock characters" from this shot ...

This one may have a little James Dean in it.

A teenager leaning on a wall? I'm resisting the temptation to say that this unusual movie rock looks like Bob Dylan.

Here's something along the lines of Max Headroom.

There's plenty more where these came from. "The Trusted Outlaw" is a strange movie, to say the least, and it also happens to be one of the greatest Iverson productions ever filmed. The proliferation of weird faces and illusions and what-not in the rocks reminds me of another really weird and wonderful Iverson movie, "Thunder River Feud," which I've blogged about before a number of times — click here to check that one out.

You may also want to click here to see my earlier posts tagged "tricks of light," which include more material along the lines of faces in the rocks. There you'll find the infamous Stegosaurus Caught in an Awkward Moment, Circus Clown in Agony, Man in the Moon, Girl in the Sky and many more. Even the rare and inexplicable Captain Hornblower and White Fang.


Above are some Amazon links in case you're interested in getting ahold of a copy of "The Trusted Outlaw" on DVD.