Ancient movie steps near Lone Ranger Rock may be the oldest surviving artifact on the Iverson Movie Ranch

Filming "They Died With Their Boots On" in the Iverson Gorge in 1941

The Iverson Gorge continues to cling to secrets from its glory days as a filming location, but we got one step closer to unlocking one of those secrets on a recent expedition to the site.

The journey begins with this terrific behind-the-scenes shot from the filming of "They Died With Their Boots On," taken with the camera facing southwest, with Garden of the Gods and Lone Ranger Rock pinpointing the spot.

Almost unnoticed is a set of old stone steps near Lone Ranger Rock. Their origin is unknown — and may never be known — but my hunch is they date back to the silent film era.

Zooming in on the shot, this is about the best view of the steps that I've ever seen.

Also visible is an interesting flat slab. It looks manmade to me, but it's hard to be sure.

"The Luck of Roaring Camp" (1937): The steps make an appearance

Sightings of the steps in productions are rare, but I did spot them in this gravesite sequence in the old Monogram B-Western "The Luck of Roaring Camp," filmed a few years before "They Died With Their Boots On."

The steps are not a part of the action in the movie, but they're visible in the background. It strikes me that the steps had probably already been lying around for years without much to do.

Lone Ranger Rock and the Iverson Gorge's "Indian Village" (circa 1944-1951)

Lone Ranger Rock and its surroundings turn up again in a behind-the-scenes photo showing some of the adobe structures that were in place in the Gorge throughout much of the 1940s.

"Black Arrow" (Columbia serial, 1944): The "Indian Village" first surfaces

The adobes were part of a larger group of buildings the Iverson family called the "Indian Village," which filled much of the Upper Gorge and dated back to the 1944 Columbia serial "Black Arrow."

The behind-the-scenes photo offers a rare look at Lone Ranger Rock against the backdrop of the Indian Village.

The photo also provides another view of the steps near Lone Ranger Rock, although they're hidden in the shadows and are a bit hard to make out.

Zooming in on the photo, we get a better look at the steps.

We can also see what appears to be the slab, although it's less than crystal-clear.

Opening to "The Lone Ranger": Lone Ranger Rock's famous closeup

Lone Ranger Rock is most famous for its appearance in the opening sequence of the "Lone Ranger" TV series — a sequence that was filmed twice, in black-and-white in 1949 and again in color in 1956.

Lone Ranger Rock in modern times: The Iverson Movie Ranch's top "tourist attraction"

Lone Ranger Rock today remains a magnet for fans of the "Lone Ranger" TV series.

Lone Ranger Rock in December 2018

Lately the area below Lone Ranger Rock, like much of the undeveloped terrain of the former Iverson Ranch over the past couple of years, has become overloaded with dried brush, making access a challenge.

Below Lone Ranger Rock: The old movie steps can still be found

You have to look pretty carefully through the brush to find the steps, but they're still there.

Until recently, the steps below Lone Ranger Rock had been pretty much lost to history. I doubt that anyone ever looked for them until late 2018, when we made a trek into the area specifically in search of the steps.

All things considered, the steps were pretty easy to find. They were right where they "should" be, based on the various screen shots and behind-the-scenes production stills.

The Lone Ranger Rock Steps, at bottom right

They're not much to see, really, after being buried under decades' worth of dirt and brush. They're just a series of flat rocks, arranged into a crude stairway leading up toward Lone Ranger Rock.

There's just enough evidence to determine that the rocks were arranged this way on purpose. As far as why they were placed here, or when, or by whom, these may all be unanswerable questions.

While I was in the area, I also searched for the slab.

I figured if the round rock just above the slab could be found, it would pinpoint where the slab should be.

I was able to find the round rock without any trouble, but found no sign of the slab. The slab's disappearance bolsters the argument that it was manmade, because otherwise, why would it have been removed?

French poster for "Ben-Hur" (MGM, 1925)

The best theory I can come up with to try to explain the steps — and I suppose, the slab too — is that they were set up back in the spring of 1925 during production on the silent feature "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ."

"Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ": A crowd gathers at Lone Ranger Rock

The steps could have been installed to help position the extras and cast members who crowded into a relatively small area below Lone Ranger Rock for this scene in "Ben-Hur." The steps themselves are not visible in the scene.

The color footage shot in the Iverson Gorge was innovative in 1925. Much of the movie was filmed in black-and-white, but parts of it — including the Lone Ranger Rock sequence — are in early Technicolor.

The silent "Ben-Hur" also includes an early visit by at least one camel to the Iverson Ranch. While this may have been the first camel on the ranch, it wasn't the last — other camel sightings can be found here and here.

Are these the oldest movie artifacts on the Iverson Ranch?

It's pretty cool that the steps managed to survive all this time — and considering that they're probably close to 100 years old, they may well be the oldest surviving manmade artifacts on the former Iverson Movie Ranch.

Behind the scenes on "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" with Ramon Novarro, Francis X. Bushman and the great Iverson cinematographer George B. Meehan Jr.

A treasure trove of behind-the-scenes photos from the 1925 silent epic "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" has been unearthed thanks to Jill Bergstrom, the granddaughter of the great silent movie-era and B-Western cinematographer George B. Meehan Jr.

Behind the scenes on "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" (1925):
Francis X. Bushman and George Meehan

In this shot from Meehan's personal collection, Francis X. Bushman, one of the biggest stars of the silent era, poses grandly on his chariot during a break from shooting the climactic chariot race sequence for "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ." Relaxing on the wheel of the chariot is George Meehan, who was a part of the camera crew for the movie.

This interesting shot from the George Meehan collection reveals one of the production techniques used to create the chariot race footage. The "chariot" in which Francis X. Bushman is standing, at bottom right, is not pulled by horses for this part of the shoot, but is in fact attached to a car. Meanwhile, a camera truck is in position to catch all the action from beside the unusual rig, with five cameras and five cameramen on board.

One of those five cameramen is George Meehan, identified here along with actor Francis X. Bushman, who played Ben-Hur's former friend and now bitter enemy Messala in the movie.

In this encounter on the camera truck, Meehan, standing between the two cameras, appears to be showing the film's star, Ramon Novarro, how the camera works. Novarro played the title role of Ben-Hur.

Meehan and Novarro continue to hang out during a break from filming, posing for a "candid" photo next to the camera truck. Meehan would go on to become one of the most accomplished cinematographers of the B-Western era, working for years for Columbia shooting cowboy heroes including Bill Elliott and Charles Starrett — and doing some of his best work on the Iverson Movie Ranch.

This shot from the set of the chariot race gives some idea of the massive scale of the set pieces used during the sequence, with the cameramen at right dwarfed by a large statue in the background. The race is said to have been filmed in a sprawling arena built for the movie near what today is La Cienega, Venice Boulevard and Cadillac Avenue in L.A., although it has sometimes been reported in error that the sequence was shot at Iverson.

A wide swath of open space where the chariot race was filmed can be seen in this shot. The sequence was one of the most ambitious undertakings up to that time for a still relatively young movie industry — a large-scale shoot that encompassed a wide arena and featured enormous sets. The movie, which took almost two years to film, is often cited as the most expensive silent movie ever made, coming in at about $4 million.

Here's a closer look at some of those sets, filled with hundreds of extras. A number of the stars of the era reportedly had uncredited roles as race spectators — a list of names including John and Lionel Barrymore, Marion Davies, Douglas Fairbanks, Dorothy and Lillian Gish, Harold Lloyd, Mary Pickford, Joan Crawford and even Samuel Goldwyn and Sid Grauman. Future B-Western hero Bill Elliott is also on that list.

A promotional still for the movie provides a better look at the packed stands during the chariot race.

Myrna Loy

The movie also featured an all-star lineup of uncredited — and in some cases, unconfirmed — slave girls, with Myrna Loy, Carole Lombard, Janet Gaynor and Fay Wray among the names that have been mentioned.

Another shot taken during a timeout from filming has Bushman waving from his chariot — still rigged up to the tow car — Meehan nearby with hand on hip and other members of the crew standing by.

This shot of George Meehan in his "office" on the back of the camera car again provides a sense of the large scale of some of the sets.

"Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" (1925) — Lone Ranger Rock

This screen shot features one of only a handful of scenes from "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" that were shot on the Iverson Movie Ranch. The crowd is gathered at the rock we now call Lone Ranger Rock, which can be seen in profile at top right. For more about Lone Ranger Rock, including this appearance in the 1925 version of "Ben-Hur," please click here.

George Meehan in the trenches — literally — in 1918

Meehan took time out from what was already a busy career as a cameraman in the silent movies to put in time as an official photographer with the U.S. Army during World War I. With his movie camera aimed toward the sky, he appears to be filming aerial action in the above photo. His scrapbook notes at this time refer to "the World War."

George Meehan, ca. 1920

Although Meehan was acclaimed for his technical prowess, his artful camera work and his willingness to do whatever it took to get the shot — such as bringing his camera into a cage of lions or operating it on a swinging steel girder many stories above the street — much of his work in the early silents remains undocumented. Sadly, I believe that's the norm, and not the exception, with many of the earliest Hollywood pioneers.

In the span of a career in the movies that lasted until 1947, George Meehan filmed at least 20 movies on the Iverson Movie Ranch, including two that are on my list of the greatest Iverson showcases: the Bill Elliott feature "Taming of the West" in 1939 and the Charles Starrett movie "Pardon My Gun" in 1942. I plan to revisit Meehan's work in an upcoming post, where I will focus more on his B-Westerns and his work at Iverson.

I'd like to thank Jill Bergstrom for her generosity in sharing these rare glimpses into the past with my readers and helping to preserve the memory of George Meehan's terrific contributions to movie history.

Fans flock to famous rock

Fans of old movies and early TV shows find a lot to love at the site of the former Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., but the single feature that attracts more interest than anything else is Lone Ranger Rock. It's not the most beautiful or most interesting rock at the site — far from it. But it's the most famous.

The rock became famous mainly because of its appearance in the opening to every episode of the old TV show "The Lone Ranger," in which the masked man, played by Clayton Moore, rears up on Silver right next to the rock — part of the famous "Hi-yo, Silver!" sequence. The rock was seen in many other productions as well, but this was its defining moment. 

"Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" (MGM, 1925)

The rock was making appearances in the movies decades before Clayton Moore first rode up. Above is a screen shot from one of its early appearances, back in the silent movie era. That's Lone Ranger Rock (not yet known by that name) in the top right corner, with a group of characters from biblical times standing on it and a whole mob gathered at its base.

Lone Ranger Rock, in the silent movie "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ"

It's not widely known that Lone Ranger Rock used to be called Indian Head. No one I've heard from knows how or when that name came about, but the name has been confirmed by Iverson family members. It's worth noting that at least four rocks on the former Iverson Ranch have been called Indian Head at one time or other. I blogged about the site's many Indian Heads in an earlier post that you can find by clicking here.

The TV show had its first run on ABC from 1949-1957, and it was probably around that time that the rock first started being called Lone Ranger rock. The above title shot was filmed on the Upper Iverson, while Lone Ranger Rock was located a few miles away on the Lower Iverson.

The good news is that Lone Ranger Rock, by any other name, is still alive and well. It can be seen without even getting out of your car, from Redmesa Road, just north of Santa Susana Pass Road in Chatsworth. It is also relatively easy to get to on foot, if you don't mind tromping through the sagebrush. The rock is on land that has been preserved as a park, so you don't have to risk being shot at by the locals to get your photo op. It's in Garden of the Gods Park — named after the huge sandstone boulders found mainly across the street, on the west side of Redmesa Road, which also appeared in many old Westerns and TV shows.

I was interested to see what other fans did on their visits to Lone Ranger Rock, and I tracked down a few YouTube videos documenting fan pilgrimages. I've posted them below.














First, here's a short clip by David August:




This one posted in 2016 traces the Lone Ranger's route through the Iverson Gorge, identifying a number of the rocks he passes along the way:



You can see another cool video about a fan visit to Lone Ranger Rock by going to this YouTube link. That one has embedding disabled, so I can't post it here. But it's worth checking out.

If you're thinking about heading out to Chatsworth to see the rock for yourself, I have two minor cautionary notes: (1) Watch out for poison oak, and (2) watch out for snakes.

Poison oak at Iverson, not far from Lone Ranger Rock

Poison oak is easier to spot after it starts turning red — and it also gets more potent then. But it's dangerous even when it's green, which is one of its sneaky and unpleasant characteristics. (Others include making you itch like heck, being resistant to just about any kind of treatment, and sticking to clothes and everything else, meaning you can get it from just touching your clothes.) In case you haven't had the "pleasure" of coming into contact with it before, take my word for it: You don't want to. If you're not sure you can recognize it in the wild, try not to touch any plants, and be careful when handling your shoes and pants after you hike in the area.

Western diamondback rattlesnake

The other warning is about snakes. A number of different species live at Iverson, but the ones you have to worry about are the rattlers. I still have yet to see my first rattlesnake at Iverson — the above photo is not shot there — but I've encountered other snakes at the site, and that was scary enough. The rattler is known to live there, so be careful about where you step, and if you do see one, give it some room. Word is they don't usually hassle you if you don't hassle them.

Just a reminder: You CAN see Lone Ranger Rock from your car, or from the sidewalk, if you're reluctant to tromp around in the brush. If you head north up Redmesa Road from Santa Susana Pass Road, the rock is one of the first things you'll see, on the right. But I still recommend getting out of the car.



























Below are Amazon links to some of the DVD packages of the old "Lone Ranger" material, with a warning that many of the best packages go out of print from time to time.