Is this the weirdest rock on the Iverson Movie Ranch?

"Doglips," on the Lower Iverson in Chatsworth, Calif.

I've had a long-running fixation with this sandstone monstrosity, one of the heavily filmed "Classic Rocks" on the former Iverson Movie Ranch.

Doglips in its "Chinless Wonder" persona

The rock takes on a multitude of identities from various angles, including standing upright and puffing its chest out in cartoonlike bravado when viewed from just the right angle from the north. Your mileage may vary.

Doglips' eastern profile

Each of the rock's many profiles is at least as weird as the last — and in some cases even weirder. Viewed from the east, Doglips even flashes what might be interpreted as "dog tongue."

While Doglips' "tongue" is tragically small for a dog, it makes up for it by being a bit too far back in its "mouth." When a dog has its tongue flapping out like this, it suggests to me that the animal is happy and tired (and also hot).

Doglips and its neighbor, Lone Ranger Rock

Pulling back the camera a bit, we see Doglips along with its much smaller — and much more famous — neighbor to the south, Lone Ranger Rock. The Santa Susana Mountains to the west can be seen in the background.

Doglips does not enjoy the the level of adulation Lone Ranger Rock earned by being featured in the opening of "The Lone Ranger," but Doglips has the advantage — if it is an advantage — of being weirder than its neighbor.

Doglips' cameo in the opening to the TV show "The Lone Ranger"

A little-known secret is that Doglips, too, appears in the opening sequence for "The Lone Ranger" — albeit in a supporting role, hiding in the background as Clayton Moore, Silver and Lone Ranger Rock take their bows.

Doglips, right, with Lone Ranger Rock to its left

The close bond between Doglips and Lone Ranger Rock is evident again in this recent shot from yet another angle, with the camera capturing the two rocks from the northeast.

One thing about rocks is that when they mate, they mate for life.

Are you on board yet with the suggestion that Doglips might be the weirdest rock on the Iverson Ranch?

"Unknown Valley" (Columbia, 1933): Doglips threatens to get weird

Doglips makes countless appearances in movies and TV shows, but rarely does it unleash anything like the full fury of its weirdness on the screen — there's really no substitute for seeing the rock up close and in person.

This shot from the old Buck Jones Western "Unknown Valley" captures the upper section of Doglips from almost the same angle seen in photos just above this one, with the camera again shooting from the northeast.

"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" TV series

A more common angle for Doglips in productions is this one showing the rock's distinctive Western profile. It's about the same thing you see today when you drive past the rock on Redmesa Road.

The shot comes from the "Wyatt Earp" episode "The Gatling Gun," which premiered Oct. 21, 1958.

Doglips in 2016 (photo by Jerry Condit)

I love this photo capturing the rock's Dali-esque Western profile in all its black and white glory. This contemporary view of the rock was taken in early 2016 by photographer and film location historian Jerry Condit.

"Jungle Girl" (Republic serial, 1941)

Notice the dark rock in the left half of the screen, with its shape reminiscent of the head of a monkey.

By now it's unlikely to come as a surprise, but this is another appearance by Doglips — and still another persona for the complex movie rock. Here the rock is again filmed from the north ... "-ish."

"Perils of Nyoka" (Republic serial, 1942)

The following year the seminal Republic serial "Perils of Nyoka" came to Iverson for an extensive shoot. This shot from the production includes Doglips and a number of other interesting rocks, filmed from the top of Nyoka Cliff.

You may have already spotted Doglips, but just to make sure — that's it on the right.

The sequence also provides a long-distance view of the incredible Rock Island. If you'd like to get the full rundown on this major rock feature, please click here to see my in-depth Rock Island "viewer's guide" from 2015.

A couple of other rock features seen in the background may also be of interest to fans of the Iverson Movie Ranch. Click here to see a post about Bald Knob, and here to read about Batman Corner.

One of the stars of "Perils of Nyoka" is Clayton Moore, who would return to Iverson in 1949 as TV's "Lone Ranger." In a mildly ironic twist, Clayton happens to be blocking our view of the rock he would soon make famous.

"Perils of Nyoka": The view from on high, near the Nyoka Summit

When Clayton steps aside later in the sequence, we see revealed the rock he was inadvertently hiding from us: Lone Ranger Rock, today the most famous rock feature on the Iverson Ranch.

Doglips and Lone Ranger Rock in modern times

This contemporary shot offers a similar high angle on Lone Ranger Rock and Doglips.

The Upper Gorge today: Movie rocks and condos

Pulling back for a wider view of the same area, we see the rocks' proximity to Redmesa Road, along with the expanse of condos that now fills much of the former Lower Iverson.

How to find Doglips, just east of Redmesa Road

It's easy to visit Doglips. First make your way to Chatsworth, Calif. Take the 118 Freeway to Topanga headed south, turn right on Santa Susana Pass Road, then right on Redmesa. You won't even have to get out of the car.

One of the all-time great shootouts in the Iverson Gorge — and a new name for the Gorge's late, lamented "Big Leaner"

"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" (TV series)

I found this great shootout in the TV series "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp," in the episode "Shoot to Kill," which first aired Oct. 18, 1960, early in the show's sixth and final season. By "great" I mean mainly that the shootout showcases the famous movie rocks of the Iverson Ranch in spectacular fashion. The whole thing plays out in the Iverson Gorge, which is most of what you're seeing in the above screen shot.

Here I've identified some of the key rock features seen in the first screen shot. The foreground rocks were found in the Upper Gorge, while Garden of the Gods, located to the west of the Gorge, is visible in the background from time to time during the gun battle. "Big Leaner" is the name I've been using in my research — and admittedly, it's not a very good one — to indicate the large cluster of rocks filling up much of the left half of the frame, with Wyatt Earp, in the white shirt, and his backup taking cover behind it. But after seeing this "Wyatt Earp" shootout, I'm forced to admit "Big Leaner" is an inadequate name for such an impressive rock feature. So from now on I'm calling it Wyatt Earp Rock.

"One Foot in Hell" (1960)

I want to make sure readers can get a sense of what Wyatt Earp Rock was all about, because it was a magnificent feature and didn't get as much airtime as it deserved. To make matters worse, the whole rock cluster was destroyed after Iverson shut down as a working movie ranch — a casualty of the development of the Iverson Gorge. The above shot, in which Wyatt Earp Rock is seen behind and to the left of the riders, comes from the widescreen 20th Century-Fox Western "One Foot in Hell" — one of the few productions that did justice to Wyatt Earp Rock.

This is another shot from the same sequence in "One Foot in Hell," and I've cropped it to emphasize Wyatt Earp Rock. If you want to see the rock in even greater detail, you should be able to enlarge the photo by clicking on it.

I've added a couple of notes to make it easier to compare the shots of Wyatt Earp Rock in the two different productions — although I'm not convinced I've actually succeeded in that effort.

This is the full-size version of the screen shot from "One Foot in Hell," which includes a small stable at the left, along with a number of major rock formations. The stable was part of a set that also included a cabin, which I talked about in a previous blog entry that you can see by clicking here. (If you go there, the "One Foot in Hell" material is at the bottom of a long post about cabins in the Gorge.)

Here's the same "One Foot in Hell" shot with some of the major features noted. All of these features also figure into the "Wyatt Earp" shootout — let's get back to it.

Another look at Marshal Earp and his brother Morgan, played by Ray Boyle, in their safe zone behind Wyatt Earp Rock; this shot gives the rock one of the few closeups it ever had.

Hugh O'Brian as the rock-solid Earp gets his closeups too, naturally.

Meanwhile, the bad guys are all over nearby Three Ages Rock.

Chinless Wonder, seen in the center of this shot, gets in on the action too, along with Elders Peak and the Elders, which are south of Iverson across Santa Susana Pass Road. I'll highlight all the key features in the next shot.

Here's the same screen shot with the major features noted.

Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, who should make an appearance but The Wall — one of the most legendary, and most lamented, of all the Iverson Movie Ranch rock features that are no longer with us. The Wall, hard to miss at the top of the frame, was brought down in the late 1980s when condo development hit the Iverson Gorge in a big way.

Some of the detail shots of the rocks are really nice. Plus I'm sure the actors had fun playing shoot-em-up in such a cool setting.

Here's another shot centered around Three Ages Rock, as the tide begins to turn against the bad guys.

This guy got shot right next to Three Ages, and is shown here falling against the rock ... kind of awkwardly. My hat's off to all the actors and stuntmen — it couldn't have been easy dying with all those jagged rocks around.

Three Ages Rock and the remains of the D-Train in modern times

The photo of the wounded man falling against Three Ages Rock reminds me a little — ONLY a little — of this one, which I've posted before. This shot from recent times shows a film location researcher in virtually the same spot as the "Wyatt Earp" bad guy, albeit in a more casual pose and in happier times, exploring the Iverson Movie Ranch. The two shots contain many of the same rocks, including those behind, below and on both sides of the people in the shots. The recent shot also reveals the remains of the D-Train, in the foreground. You can click here to read a previous blog post about the rather brutal "defacing" of the D-Train.

Check out "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" if you're interested in old Western TV shows, movie rocks ... and especially if you're interested in the Iverson Movie Ranch. I'll post some links to Amazon below. I'm also including links for "One Foot in Hell."

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.

Chinless Wonder: Isn't it ironic? (The Classic Rock that started this whole thing)

"Overland Stage Raiders" (1938)

The fuzzy black-and-white shot above is from a VHS tape of Republic's Three Mesquiteers B-Western "Overland Stage Raiders," starring John Wayne, Ray "Crash" Corrigan, Max "Alibi" Terhune and Louise Brooks. While the picture quality, especially on my screen shot, leaves much to be desired, it's an important movie to me, and an important scene: This was the first time I spotted an Iverson Movie Ranch setting in a movie.

What gave it away was the Elders — the line of light-colored, vertical structures seen in the background just above the center of the photo. The Elders themselves technically aren't at Iverson — they're a short distance south of the former movie ranch, across Santa Susana Pass Road, in the hills above Chatsworth Park. But they appear in the background in countless scenes shot at Iverson, and they have proved to be useful markers for Iverson shots, thanks to their distinctive shapes.

Closer to the foreground of the movie shot is Chinless Wonder, the dark figure on the left. Chinless turned out to be elusive, taking almost a year to track down. For most of that time my leading theory was that it had been destroyed to make way for Redmesa Road and condo development. Sadly, a number of important rocks in that area were in fact destroyed when the development took place, but it turns out that Chinless Wonder survived.

Doglips: Chinless Wonder from a different angle

Eventually a lightbulb went off and I discovered that not only was Chinless Wonder still around, it was simply an unusual angle on a rock that I already knew well — one I had come to call Doglips, which you can read more about by clicking here.

Chinless Wonder as it appears today

Unfortunately, because of a thick growth of trees where the camera would have to go, it is not possible to accurately re-create the angle that produces Chinless Wonder. But I've come as close as I could in the shot above, peering out through some foliage to the north of the rock. I know it's not easy to see that they're the same rock. For one thing the lighting is just about opposite: The movie shot was taken in the morning and my shot was taken in the evening. But if you look closely and compare whatever little details you can spot, it works out.

I generally avoid calling things "ironic," because it's an often-misused label and it seems as though most of the time it's just flat-out wrong. But in this case, I'll make an exception. Given that Chinless Wonder, as it appears in the above shot, seems to be making a point of proudly pushing out its prominent chin ... OK, it's ironic.

This post is part of a series on "Classic Rocks" — sandstone giants located on the former Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., that became a part of not only America's physical landscape but also its cultural heritage, through featured roles in old movies, cliffhanger serials and early TV shows. Other entries in the series can be seen by clicking here.

The links below should take you to various Amazon listings for items related to "Overland Stage Raiders," including the DVD and Blu-ray versions of the movie: