What remains of the Happy Slab

The Happy Slab is a neighbor of Batman Rock (also known as Chief Um), located a short distance to the west of the big chief. It appears in many of the same sequences as Batman Rock, albeit less conspicuously. The screen shot above, from Stagecoach (1939), shows the proximity of Batman Rock/Chief Um, a portion of which is visible at the top left of the screen, to the Happy Slab, which appears directly behind and above the driver of the stagecoach. You may be able to make out the "smile" that gives the Happy Slab its name, although the shot isn't very clear. (Click on the photo for a larger view.) The Slab faces to the right, and also has a little "eye."

You can get a better look at Batman Rock here.

Believe it or not, this is the Happy Slab today. All that's left is a little less than the bottom half. Condos have been built around it, and like Batman Rock, it sits beside a parking area. My guess is that as part of the condo construction project someone decided they had to blow off the top half of the Happy Slab because of concerns that the relatively vertical rock, which already had a lean to it, might be unstable and would be unsafe in close proximity to housing. It's just a theory.

If you look closely you can see that what is now the top of the rock doesn't have the dark coloration that's seen on the rest of the Happy Slab, which illustrates that the top hasn't been exposed to the elements for nearly as long as the rest. You may also notice that the rocks above and to the left of the Happy Slab also appear in the "Stagecoach" shot.

Saddlehorn Relay Station and related structures

"The Roy Rogers Show" (1954)

One of the many structures that came and went at Iverson during the filming era, the Saddlehorn Relay Station is a favorite of researchers, probably in part because it is a fairly complicated structure and in part because it has been a challenge to pin down details about it such as where it was located and when it existed. An early theory suggested that the building was relocated around 1946 or 1947, when it would have been moved a bit farther to the west, but later research indicates that it was probably in one spot all along. The above shot of the building comes from the "Backfire" episode of "The Roy Rogers Show," which originally aired Oct. 10, 1954.

"Escort West" (1959)

This screen shot from the Victor Mature movie "Escort West" shows the Saddlehorn Relay Station at the left, and a number of other buildings that first surfaced around this time, in the right half of the photo. "Escort West," which filmed in 1958 for an early 1959 release, was made near the end of the main filming period at Iverson, and a number of unusual buildings crop up in some of the later productions that didn't end up being around for long. But it appears the small cluster of buildings seen here, sometimes called Saddlehorn Village, lasted through the 1960s.

Here's another shot of the relay station, at right, taken from "Escort West." This one shows Garden of the Gods in the background, with Indian Head and Eagle Beak or Sphinx visible at the top of the photo on the left half.

"Adventures of Captain Marvel" (1941) — Saddlehorn Rock

Saddlehorn Relay Station is one of two main relay stations at Iverson, the other being Grove Relay Station. Saddlehorn Relay Station has also been called a variety of other names, including Heldorado Relay Station and Batman Rock Relay Station. Its location is generally described as near Batman Rock or north of Garden of the Gods. It is also sometimes spotted, obviously, near Saddlehorn Rock, which is shown above.

Batman Rock, as seen in "Stagecoach" (1939) — and today

John Ford's Great American Western "Stagecoach" (1939) made ample use of the Lower Iverson Movie Ranch, splicing together footage shot there with footage of Utah's Monument Valley to create a convenient Hollywood amalgam of the American West. Of the Iverson scenes, by far the most famous is the shot of the stage arriving at the relay station with the Sphinx (also known as Eagle Beak) and Tower Rock (also known as Indian Head) in the background. I've posted about it previously here. But Ford also was taken by the rock seen in the above screen shot from the movie, now widely known as Batman Rock because of its appearance in the Batman serials. Early in my research I called this rock Chief Um before I learned that it already had a name, so sometimes the name Chief Um still comes up, including on this blog. The name Chief Um comes from an old doo-wop song by Otis Williams and the Charms. But the name Batman Rock is preferred.

Batman Rock/Chief Um remains alive and well, albeit somewhat more hidden than in the heyday, now living alongside some condos and a driveway, just north of Garden of the Gods.

John Ford was something of a regular at Iverson, shooting a number of films at the location. His most extensive work at Iverson was for the Shirley Temple film "Wee Willie Winkie," produced two years before "Stagecoach," in 1937. He also shot a key scene at Iverson for "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940).

The blog The Great Silence, which focuses on movie locations and has some good entries on the Iverson Movie Ranch, has a detailed post about this "Stagecoach" shoot at Iverson here.

"The Roy Rogers Show": One of the most important documents of filming on the Iverson Movie Ranch

If I had to pick one TV series to get my Iverson fix, I'd probably go with "The Roy Rogers Show." The 100 episodes filmed during the show's run from 1951-1957 are a treasure trove of Iverson Movie Ranch rocks.

Roy was an iconic Western hero, and even today, long after his death in 1998 at age 86, he defines cool. The legacy Roy left behind exhibits a genuine quality that transcends the silliness of 1950s TV and rises above the amateurish production values that typified the TV Westerns of the period — including his own show.

Roy, Dale and Trigger — publicity still

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans lived in Chatsworth around the time their TV show was on the air, so Iverson was their home court. And they made great use of the place.

"The Roy Rogers Show" — "Ambush" (premiered Jan. 15, 1956)

Here's a shot of Roy and Trigger in front of Raccoon Rock on the Lower Iverson in Season 5. The series filmed consistently at Iverson throughout its six-season run on NBC.

Above is a screen shot from the show that includes Batman Rock at the far right, along with a small wooden building that was located near Saddlehorn Relay Station, north of Garden of the Gods. This little building turns up in many productions, and I refer to it in my research as Saddlehorn Shed.

A lot of temporary buildings went up in that area over the years for various productions, and John Ford made ample use of the area for "Stagecoach" in 1939. (Click here for a detailed post about Iverson locations in "Stagecoach.") Saddlehorn Shed was off by itself, more or less east of the widely filmed Saddlehorn Relay Station.

A number of buildings and other features in the area are named after nearby Saddlehorn Rock, above — still found at the site, amid some condos, and still boasting its distinctive saddlehorn shape.

"The Roy Rogers Show": Outlaw Rock

This screen shot from "The Roy Rogers Show" features Outlaw Rock, which includes a small but distinctive marker rock that I used to call the Finch, when I didn't know any better. It's the rock at the top of the shot with what looks like a beak, pointing toward the left of the frame.

The marker rock is circled in this version of the shot. Outlaw Rock is located in the Above Nyoka area of the Lower Iverson, part of the same cluster as Chewbacca, which is around the corner to the right, out of the shot. My guess is that the small pile of rubble in the lower left corner of the shot is debris from Hangover Shack. The shack was almost always in disrepair, but survived in some form long after most of the structures of Iverson's filming era, being used for filming as late as 1996.

This photo is a distant shot of part of Outlaw Rock, including the small, pointed marker rock — the Finch, if you will — from a recent Iverson visit.