Ancient rock carvings on the Iverson Movie Ranch? Chipping away at an unsolved movie mystery

The mighty Sphinx, alpha rock of the Garden of the Gods (northern profile)

One of the unsolved mysteries on the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., is the presence of carvings on the Sphinx, the dominant rock in the famed Garden of the Gods.

 

The Sphinx — southern profile (2022)

The carvings appear on the south side of the heavily filmed rock, and are plainly visible to anyone who might hike into the interior of the Garden of the Gods — provided they know where to look.

 

A closeup of the carvings (2022)

My immediate thought when I first encountered these carvings several years ago — and I know I'm not alone in this — was that they might be Native American in origin. (Spoiler alert: They're not.)

 

Location of the mysterious carvings

Native Americans have lived in California's San Fernando Valley for some 8,000 years, with certain Tongva, Chumash and Tataviam groups among those who are said to have inhabited the region around today's Chatsworth. The idea that these carvings might be thousands of years old, while a bit naive, is clearly enticing.

 

The carvings as they appear today (2022)

I first reported on the carvings back in 2014, and around that time I also began reaching out to experts on Native American petroglyphs to see whether they could shed light on just what we have here.

 

Burro Flats Painted Cave — a nearby example of legitimate indigenous rock art

The consensus among the experts was that the carvings are not ancient petroglyphs and do not appear to be the work of indigenous peoples. Relative to the genuine article, as seen here, they're probably not even all that old.

 

California Chumash rock art (Dan McCaslin photo)

 

So yeah, on second thought, no way the carvings on the former movie ranch are from thousands of years ago. Among other issues, they bear little resemblance to these painted examples of this region's ancient rock art.

 

Identifiable images in the Iverson Movie Ranch carvings

But it's an honest mistake, considering that the Iverson Ranch carvings include such recognizable items as a fish and a horse — images that one might reasonably expect would also turn up in bona fide petroglyphs.

 

The third figure — what is it?

I see this one as a bird, maybe even a chicken, although it's not quite as well-defined as the fish or the horse.

 

"Follow Me, Boys!" (Disney, 1966): 14-year-old Kurt Russell on the Sphinx

Keeping in mind that this is the Iverson Movie Ranch — accent on the word "movie" — it follows that, like most mysteries surrounding this fascinating and historic property, this one is another movie mystery.

 

The scene takes place in front of the same carvings

One of the advantages of trying to solve a mystery on a former movie ranch — and I imagine this is obvious — is the movies. We always have movies to look at, and TV shows too, when seeking clues to the location's history.

 

Kurt's character, Whitey, tries to talk some sense into a fellow Scout who fell down a cliff

So many productions were filmed on the ranch that the rock carvings are bound to show up in at least a few of them. And that's just what we find: a few movies — but only a few — that include shots of the carvings.

 

The carvings continue to appear behind the boys

Key questions I would love to have answered include these: When did the carvings first appear, and if they were created for a movie, which movie was it? And can we see it?

 

The other boy, Ronnie, played by Greger Vigen, is rescued thanks to Whitey's heroism

For the most part, the answer to all of those questions, unfortunately, is we don't know. But a number of clues have turned up in various movies and TV shows.

 

Zooming in on the fish, the horse and ... whatever the thing on the right is

You may have noticed that the rock carvings look "funny" in the "Follow Me, Boys!" screen shots, as though someone tried to paint over them — similar to what we might try to do today with graffiti.

 

It appears that an attempt was made to cover up the carvings

The masking, whether it's paint, charcoal, putty or whatever, appears to be an attempt by the "Follow Me, Boys!" crew to hide the carvings, which would say something about how badly they wanted to shoot in this location.

 

"Gunsmoke" episode "Honor Before Justice" (1966)

Around the same time as the "Follow Me, Boys!" shoot, the carvings also made a lower-profile appearance in an episode of the popular Western TV series "Gunsmoke."

 

What is it about 1966 and those carvings?

It's a rare occasion when the carvings can be seen in any production, and especially rare to see them pop out like this. Because of "Gunsmoke" and "Follow Me, Boys!," for a while I thought the carvings must be from the Sixties.

 

"African Treasure" (Bomba the Jungle Boy, 1952)

But the timeline shifted recently when my friend and fellow location historian Cliff Roberts found the carvings in the jungle movie "African Treasure." This discovery proves they were already carved at least by 1952.

 

Bomba traverses a perilous cliff in "African Treasure"

Monogram's "Bomba the Jungle Boy" series starred Johnny Sheffield, who previously played "Boy" in the Tarzan movies. As soon as he was old enough to fight his own alligators, he got his own jungle series.

 

Location of the carvings

The "Bomba" series filmed frequently on the Iverson Ranch, but it does not appear that the carvings on the side of the Sphinx were created specifically for "African Treasure" or any other "Bomba" movies.

 

Bomba works his way past the carvings

However, some shots in the Bomba sequence show the carvings with unusual clarity. The carvings are visible throughout a brief sequence in "African Treasure" in which Sheffield works his way along a narrow ledge.

 

A closer look at the carvings

It's the same ledge where Kurt Russell's character would later rescue the other Boy Scout in "Follow Me, Boys!" Zooming in a little, we can easily make out familiar figures such as the fish and horse.

 

There's plenty to see on the side of that rock

The Bomba sequence also taps into other parts of the mystery, especially in the area above the fish and the horse and above Johnny Sheffield.

 

Damaged area near the rock carvings

It's clear that something has happened to the rock in this area, but what is it?

 

A section of rock wall with a lot going on

Taking another look at the shape the rock is in today, we can see what appears to be scratched-out areas above and below the familiar rock carvings.

 

What stories is this rock trying to tell us?

The work isn't confined to the area with the fish, horse and bird, but extends across a wider swath of rock surface surrounding those carvings.

 

The identifiable images are just a part of the story

The area where we find the fish, the horse and other examples of the most recognizable carvings is right in the middle of something that looks almost like a rock carving battlefield.

 

The surface looks as though it's been sanded or chipped away in this area

Additional images may have once appeared below the fish and horse area, but they're gone now. This section gives the impression that any images previously found here were intentionally and permanently removed.

 

This section has also been worked and reworked

A similar situation can be found in the area above the fish and horse, where it looks as though someone carved slashes throughout this section, presumably in an effort to eliminate any existing images.

 

Notice the area above the fish and horse

Whoever may have been trying to eliminate the figures in this area seems to have given up on the task before it was completed, because we can still see remnants of the images.

 

Remnants of figures can still be seen

The figures in this area would probably form a nice complement to those in the fish and horse area had these not been scratched out. As far as the question of when any of this happened, it remains largely unknown.

 

The rock carvings area, circa 1926 (Bison Archives)

But an intriguing set of clues surfaced about two years ago when this old still photo turned up in Marc Wanamaker's Bison Archives.

 

By the 1920s, activity can already be seen in the rock carvings area

The photo, believed to be from about 1926, shows assistant director Fred Fleck scouting a location on the Iverson Movie Ranch. But for our purposes, what's most interesting about it is what we can see behind him.

 

The rock has something to say — and has already had messages erased by the '20s

Zooming in on the vicinity of the rock carvings, it's immediately evident that activity has already taken place in this area — especially in the fish and horse area and in the section above it.

 

The "Razorback" — natural markings on the rock

One of the best ways to "navigate" between images of the rock as it appears today and an image from close to 100 years ago is by identifying a key natural formation on the rock.

 

The Arkansas Razorbacks logo, top, and the rock's naturally formed "Razorback"

I refer to this set of markings as the "Razorback," because it reminds me of the familiar image of a razorback pig — like the one that appears as the logo of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks.

 

The natural "Razorback" formation: What is its relationship to the manmade carvings?

The Razorback, which is still easy to find on the rock today, can be helpful in locating key reference points between the photo of the rock in the 1920s and photos of the rock as it appears in 2022.

 

Using the Razorback to help navigate the rock

For example, we know that the fish is directly above the "ear" of the Razorback. Similarly, the horse is directly above the Razorback's hind leg.

 

Locating the future site of the fish and horse in the 1920s photo

Even though today's fish and horse do not appear to be in place yet in the 1920s photo, the Razorback helps point us to the area where they will later be found.

 

Rock "canvases" in the shapes of future carvings?

Work has clearly been done in the fish and horse area, but it's hard to be sure what we're seeing. While it appears that no figures have been carved yet, it almost looks as though the rock has been "prepped."

 

The rock carvings area circa 1926 (top) and in 2022

Meanwhile, the work that has already been done in the section above the fish-horse area aligns with the current condition of the rock. But again, it's hard to tell exactly what's going on here.

 

No sign of the carvings themselves circa 1926, despite all the "prep" work

The appearance of the rock in the 1920s suggests that it may have already been in use as some kind of "message board." But the carvings that we see today — both in the fish and horse area and in the section above it — appear to have been added later.

 

The Sphinx — southern profile, including the carvings area (2022)

The takeaway from all of this is that we still don't know what was going on with this intriguing expanse of rock in the early filming era — or for that matter, really in any era.

 

"Everyman" (Kinemacolor, 1913): Linda Arvidson and the Sphinx (Bison Archives)

However, it's worth keeping in mind that this was a filming location going back to the earliest days of the movie industry on the West Coast — at least as far back as 1913.

 

The Sphinx, in a 1913 promo still for the lost film "Everyman"

It's likely that secrets to the carvings' origins are hidden away in some of the silent movies filmed on the Iverson Ranch that are now lost — including movies we may never know were filmed on the ranch.

 

Location of the Linda Arvidson photo in 2020 — more than a century later

For the most part the location of the 1913 photo remains unchanged today — even the laurel sumac continues to thrive in that same spot. I did a post in 2020 about the Arvidson photo, which you can see by clicking here.

 

Garden of the Gods in 1920, during filming of "Man-Woman-Marriage"

Many other early movies also filmed in this area. One that still exists is "Man-Woman-Marriage," the source of this stunning behind-the-scenes shot.

 

A tantalizing view of the carvings area in 1920

The photo provides another early look at the carvings area, but like most of the material to surface from this period, it's not detailed enough to add anything about the carvings' origins.

 

Behind the scenes of "Man-Woman-Marriage"

The photo, which I received several years ago from Ben Burtt, includes more than its share of interesting features. Click here to see more about this photo and other "Man-Woman-Marriage" photos in a post from 2015.

 

"The Young Rajah" (Rudolph Valentino, 1922): Partially lost silent movie

An example of an important lost silent film — in this case a partially lost one — is Rudolph Valentino's "The Young Rajah" from 1922, which filmed at least one major sequence on the Iverson Movie Ranch.

 

Battle sequence from "The Young Rajah": This appears to be the only surviving shot

A large battle scene was filmed in the Garden of the Gods, but all of the video footage is lost. Partial versions of the movie can be found on YouTube, but the lone surviving battle photo clearly doesn't tell the whole story — and the photo is not detailed enough to reveal anything about the rock carvings.

 

A major shoot, complete with large fake rocks and many extras

It's clear from the number of extras, along with the fact that the studio went to the trouble to put up enormous fake rocks for the occasion, that this was a large-scale shoot. It's possible that the lost battle footage, should it ever turn up, could help shed light on the rock carvings.

 

"The Young Rajah" (Paramount, 1922)

I posted about "The Young Rajah" in 2018 — you can click here to see more photos and other info about the movie, including a detailed breakdown of the surviving battle photo.

 

Follow the trail off Redmesa Road to the rock carvings

To find the rock carvings, park near the trailhead on Redmesa Road in Chatsworth, Calif., about a quarter-mile north of Santa Susana Pass Road. GPS coordinates for the carvings are 34.273397, -118.612325.

 

Thank you, Fred Fleck, for pausing here, and Bison Archives, for preserving these photos

Whenever evidence surfaces from the silent film era — as it did just in the past couple of years with the "Everyman" photo from 1913 and the Fred Fleck photo from circa 1926, both from Bison Archives — it adds vital pieces to the jigsaw puzzle that is the early history of the Iverson Movie Ranch.

 

A multi-layered mystery

In the case of the rock carvings, the mysteries have multiple layers, which makes them that much more compelling. I encourage readers to offer your own theories in the comments section below.