Interactive map of the Iverson Movie Ranch

Interactive map of the Iverson Movie Ranch and nearby filming locations

Movie location explorer Tyler Malone has created a map of famous rocks and filming sites on the Iverson Movie Ranch. You can see the Lower Iverson above, with each of the blue "tags" pointing to a movie rock.

It's interactive!

The map is interactive, so you should be able to click on individual tags to see details about particular rock features. You can also zoom in and out, or use your mouse to "drag" the map to move it around.

Use the "plus" and "minus" buttons to zoom in and out. This will only work on the map at the top of this post, so if you're trying to click on this image and it isn't working, you'll want to go back to the map up above.

This is just my way of emphasizing that only the map at the top of the post is interactive, so don't try to click on any of the other images — they're just illustrations. (But clicking on them will still bring up a larger image.)

The frame icon in the top right corner should take you to a larger version of the interactive map. Again, this will only work if you start with the map at the top of this post.

Zoom out to see the Upper and Lower Iverson combined

If you zoom out (by using the "minus" button), you can see both the Upper Iverson and the Lower Iverson.

In addition to the Upper and Lower Iverson, a few nearby filming locations are also tagged, such as the Spahn Ranch immediately to the southwest of the Lower Iverson and Stoney Point to the southeast.

Wide map of Santa Susana Mountains filming locations

If you zoom out even further, you'll see that Tyler's map extends to a few other locations in the Santa Susana Mountains, including Corriganville to the east and various Chatsworth filming sites southwest of the Iverson Ranch.

Three major filming areas in the Santa Susana Mountains

In addition to the two most heavily filmed movie ranches of all time — the Iverson Ranch and Corriganville — the map points the way to some fascinating and lesser-known Chatsworth filming sites, inside the green circle.

Zooming in on the Gorge, on the Lower Iverson

Here's an example of what the map looks like when you zoom in on a particular area — in this case we're seeing a section of the Upper Gorge below the condos on the Lower Iverson, along the eastern edge of Redmesa Road.

Interactive tag for "The Pit"

Tyler set up the map to interact with the Iverson Movie Ranch Blog, so if you click on a tag — for example, the tag noted here for "The Pit" — it brings up information from the blog, usually including a link.

Side panel with details about "The Pit"

Clicking on the tag for the Pit brings up a side panel containing a photo, the feature's name and a link to a blog post about the Pit. Again, this will only work on the interactive version of the map, found at the top of this post.

Blog post about "The Pit," found by following the link in the side panel

You can click on the link in the side panel, which will take you to a blog post about the specific feature tagged on the interactive map. For example, the link associated with the Pit takes you to this post from 2018.

Tyler Malone, in white Range Rover, re-creates "Bad Day at Black Rock" in the Alabama Hills

Tyler Malone, who created the interactive Iverson map, has been exploring filming locations for years, and often takes "then and now" shots in which he re-enacts scenes from the movies.

Monument Valley's John Ford Point: Tyler vs. "The Searchers"

Here's a scene in which Tyler, in the blue plaid shirt in the bottom photo, visits John Ford Point in Monument Valley to re-create a shot from Ford's classic 1956 Western "The Searchers."

"The Duel at Silver Creek" (1952): The Lower Iverson, then and now 

Tyler recently began focusing increasingly on the Iverson Movie Ranch. That's Tyler in the bottom photo, in the black T-shirt, walking toward a distinctive Lower Iverson rock formation seen in "The Duel at Silver Creek."

The same rock, on the interactive map

The rock from "The Duel at Silver Creek" can also be found on Tyler's map, due east of the easternmost condo unit on the former Lower Iverson. Today the rock is on private property in an area that is inaccessible.

"Bat Masterson" TV episode "Buffalo Kill" (1959): a hard-to-find rock

Tyler has also been helping me locate mystery rocks on the Iverson Ranch, and has already made some key finds. Longtime readers may recall the above photo, part of a 2017 post about "unsolved mysteries."

The same rock today, largely concealed behind foliage

The rock today is hidden behind brush in an out-of-the-way spot along the northwest slope of Cactus Hill, and is almost impossible to recognize. Tyler pulled off a small miracle by tracking it down.

Up close with the business end of the rock, now known as "Buffalo Kill Rock"

We visited the rock in July to make sure we were seeing what we thought we were seeing, and everything checked out. In honor of the "Bat Masterson" episode, we've taken to calling this unusual rock feature "Buffalo Kill Rock."

Among the features that can be matched up are the pronounced vertical slash in the side of the rock, the smaller flat rock on top, and the overhanging section of "lip" at the north end of the rock.

The same features are visible in the "Bat Masterson" shot. I haven't quite settled on which of the two flat rocks is the right one, but I'm sure it's one of them.

Buffalo Kill Rock on the Iverson Ranch map (go to the top of this post for interactive features)

Buffalo Kill Rock can be found on Tyler's map, but as you can see, we don't have much info on it yet. The map remains a work in progress, and will probably soon link to the blog post you're now reading.

Buffalo Kill Rock's location on Cactus Hill

It's impossible today to duplicate Buffalo Kill Rock's distinctive "sub sandwich" appearance from "Bat Masterson," but thanks to Tyler's map it's relatively easy to pinpoint the rock's location: northwest of the water tanks.

"Excuse Me" (1925): Norma Shearer-Conrad Nagel movie filmed at Iverson

Another Iverson mystery rock Tyler found appears in the Norma Shearer silent movie "Excuse Me." The movie itself is hard to find, to put it mildly, but a couple of interesting promo stills have turned up.

Promo still for "Excuse Me": Norma sits on the Norma Shearer Rocks

I first blogged about "Excuse Me" in December 2018 as part of a post about promo stills that found their way to me from Marc Wanamaker's Bison Archives. Click here to see the post, and scroll down to the "Excuse Me" part.

The Norma Shearer Rocks today, in Iverson's Garden of the Gods

At the time I was still looking for the "Norma Shearer Rocks," where the actress sat during the filming of "Excuse Me." I found them a few weeks later, and published a blog item about them that you can see by clicking here.

"Excuse Me" promo still: Norma Shearer climbs "Excuse Me Point"

Another promo still for "Excuse Me" had Norma on top of a pointed rock that proved much more difficult to find. I mentioned in my first post about "Excuse Me" that I was looking for this one.

"Excuse Me Point": The same rock Norma Shearer ascended in 1925

Tyler took me up on the challenge, and to both of our surprise, he found "Excuse Me Point." Perhaps even moreso than in the case of Buffalo Kill Rock, it was a miracle that he ever found this rock.

"Excuse Me Point": Part of a jumbled pile of rarely filmed rocks

"Excuse Me Point" is buried in the deep recesses of the rarely filmed Western Garden of the Gods. To make matters worse, the rocks have shifted considerably in the almost 100 years since Norma Shearer dropped by.

The rocks no longer line up the way they did in 1925, but we were able to get a positive ID on Excuse Me Point from its markings. Incredibly, it's the same rock that Norma Shearer climbed 94 years ago.

"Excuse Me Point" on the Iverson map

Excuse Me Point can be found on the interactive map, where it's one of the southernmost features noted in the Garden of the Gods. Go to the interactive version of the map at the top of this post to check it out.

Tyler Malone's interactive map of Chatsworth-area filming locations

Tyler's interactive map is an impressive achievement — I know readers of this blog will have fun with it. If you're having trouble accessing the interactive features, try clicking here to go to the map's homepage.

Tyler Malone, in blue shirt, gets his "Jurassic Park" on at Red Rock Canyon

I want to send out a big thank-you to Tyler for the incredible map, for your enthusiasm and your help finding tough movie rocks, and for all of your outstanding contributions to film history. I look forward to future adventures.