The Year in Review: Top 10 Iverson Movie Ranch finds of 2014

2014 was a busy year in Iverson Movie Ranch research. As I was looking back over the year's blog posts to help put together a Top 10 list of the most significant finds of the year, I realized it would be difficult to narrow it down to just 10. So in addition to the Top 10 Countdown that follows, you'll find a "Next 10" list at the bottom of this post, highlighting the discoveries that didn't quite make the Top 10.

Here's a countdown of the Top 10 Iverson Movie Ranch finds of 2014:

No. 10: Proof that Elvis Presley filmed on the Iverson Movie Ranch

Promotional still for "Harum Scarum" (1965)

It has been known for some time that Elvis Presley's 1965 Movie "Harum Scarum" was filmed in part on the Iverson Movie Ranch, but I had to put together a few puzzle pieces to prove that the King himself was captured on film at the ranch. The above promotional still played a key role in proving it.

Click here to read the blog post from October all about what Elvis was up to while he was at Iverson.

No. 9: The Forsythe Oak

The Forsythe Oak, located on the former Upper Iverson Movie Ranch

2014 was the Year of the Tree in Iverson research, with the Forsythe Oak being one of three trees to make the Top 10. Named after actor John Forsythe ("Bachelor Father"), the tree was spotted in an episode of the Western anthology series "Zane Grey Theatre" and helped unlock a broader discovery, the Midway Oaks — a small grove of trees that appeared in many productions, with quite a few of the trees still in place on the former Upper Iverson.

Click here to read the blog post from August about the Forsythe Oak.

No. 8: Evidence that Bald Knob was manmade

"The Virginian" (1963) — a bolt found in the rock known as Bald Knob

The secret behind the gravity-defying rock Bald Knob, a frequently filmed feature of the Iverson Gorge, appears to have been inadvertently revealed in an episode of "The Virginian," where a bolt can be seen presumably helping to keep the rock from tipping over.

I did an in-depth examination of Bald Knob in two posts back in August, starting with this one, which examines a number of appearances by Bald Knob, including in an episode of "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" that contains a sequence I call the Battle of Bald Knob. The Bald Knob series continues with this post exposing the bolt and other possible enhancements that were made to the rock feature.

No. 7: The Charles Bronson Hanging Tree

"Bonanza" (1964) — Charles Bronson hanging from the Charles Bronson Hanging Tree

The tree from which Charles Bronson was apparently hanged during his guest appearance on "Bonanza" in 1964, in the episode "The Underdog," was found to still be in place on the former Upper Iverson. I blogged about the tree and the Bronson appearance back in September, and you can read that blog entry by clicking here.

No. 6: Tornado's Mine

"Zorro's Black Whip" (1944) — Tornado's Mine

Fellow film historians and location experts, including a number of readers of this blog, collaborated with me on my personal Iverson Movie Ranch research in 2014 more than ever before, with one example being the discovery of Tornado's Mine by Jerry Condit. Thanks to Jerry I found not only the exact location of the mine, but even some remaining pieces of the old movie set that are still in place.

I detailed the discovery of Tornado's Mine in a blog post in November that you can read by clicking here.

No. 5: Stone buttressing near Garden of the Gods

"Adventures of Captain Marvel" (1941)

Another collaborative effort went into the discovery near Garden of the Gods of the stone buttressing noted above that appeared in the Republic serial "Adventures of Captain Marvel." A sighting by "Spin and Marty" webmaster Kurt Spitzner launched the search, but it was intrepid Iverson explorer Cliff Roberts who found the structure.

You can read a post from November all about the buttressing, its location and its discovery by clicking here.

No. 4: Tom Mix bootholes from 1935

"The Miracle Rider" (1935) — Tom Mix contemplates his bootholes

I blogged in October about the discovery of the Tom Mix bootholes from the Mascot serial "The Miracle Rider" in a rock now known as Tom Mix Rock, which remains in place near the Garden of the Gods. The holes were spotted in the serial by a reader of this blog, Scotty, and I was able to track them down at the location and match them up with the holes as they remain in place today.

You can read my blog post about the bootholes by clicking here.

No. 3: The remains of Freddie Frog

"Range Beyond the Blue" (1947) — Freddie Frog

Freddie Frog was one of those rock formations at Iverson that I thought must just be my imagination — especially after trying in vain for years to find it. When I finally managed, back in February, not only to determine the location where the rock once stood, but also to find the busted-up pieces of what was once Freddie Frog, I realized I wasn't crazy.

I blogged about the Freddie Frog discovery in February, and you can read that post by clicking here.

No. 2: Bear Tree

"The Adventures of Spin and Marty" (1955)

Bear Tree was one of the first big Iverson Movie Ranch finds of 2014, and like many of the year's top discoveries, it was the result of a collaborative effort. "Spin and Marty" expert Kurt Spitzner tipped me off to the possibility that this scene from the Disney series might be filmed at Iverson, and some heads-up work by field operative Cliff Roberts produced the first confirmed contemporary photographs of the tree.

Bear Tree today

The discovery of Bear Tree helped open up a whole new "branch" of Iverson research, as it soon became apparent that in many cases a tree can be just as much help as a rock in telling a story about movie history. Following the discovery of Bear Tree, other secrets have begun to surface about the Oak Flats area, where Bear Tree is located, as well as the Midway Oaks and other tree-filled sections of the former Iverson Ranch.

To read the blog entry from back in March about Bear Tree then and now, please click here.

No. 1 — the Top Iverson Movie Ranch find of 2014: Hobbit House

Hobbit House, hidden among the condos on the former Lower Iverson

The discovery of Hobbit House early in the year helped tie up a number of loose ends about the movie history of the Upper Gorge, on the Lower Iverson. Hobbit House connects many of the dots among the Angry Cardinal, Plaza Rock, the Gorge Cabin and other features, while also revealing just how much history has been lost to the "fill dirt" used in construction of a condo community on the site.

"Stagecoach Express" (1942)

This photo of Hobbit House from 1942 gives some idea of the grandeur of the rock feature when it stood tall — before about three-quarters of it was buried. Click here to read the original blog post from March about the discovery of Hobbit House, including additional movie appearances by the rock feature. A follow-up post, which can be found by clicking here, goes into detail about Angry Cardinal, a larger rock feature of which Hobbit House forms the "top lip."

Here are some noteworthy Iverson Movie Ranch discoveries of 2014 that didn't quite make the Top 10 list — you can click on any entry to see the original blog post about the item; in no particular order:

• The site of the Snakeskin Mine Shack in "Gun Belt"

• Bigfoot Subdues Dracula

• Buster Keaton's "armory" in the towers of Rock Island

• Evolution

• Carey's Cabin on the Upper Iverson

• Lancer Arch, named for "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer"

• A new view of the Sheep Flats adobes, as seen in "The Light of Western Stars" (1940)

• Iverson after the brutal Southern California fires of fall 1970, as seen in "Cade's County"

• Crouching Cat, disguised by fake plaster rock material in "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp"

• Saddlehorn Village in widescreen CinemaScope in "Escort West"

I believe you've met the Angry Cardinal's stiff upper lip ...

"Khyber Patrol" (1954)

A few posts back I introduced a rock formation I call the Angry Cardinal, which was located on the Iverson Movie Ranch and appeared in countless old movies and TV shows. I left out a few details from that post because I needed to bring readers up to speed on some of the Cardinal's neighboring rocks in Iverson's Upper Gorge — especially Hobbit House.

Hobbit House, as it appears today (mostly buried underground)

Hobbit House and Angry Cardinal were close neighbors in the filming era, and in fact Hobbit House was incorporated into the image of the Angry Cardinal. For some background, you can read my original Angry Cardinal post here, and you can click here to get the basics on Hobbit House.

Hobbit House as it stood tall in its movie days, seen here in "Stagecoach Express" in 1942

You may have already put this together, but one big connection between Hobbit House and Angry Cardinal is that the mushroom-shaped top of Hobbit House — its distinguishing characteristic — formed the top beak of the Angry Cardinal.

Hobbit House in context in the Iverson Gorge, as seen in "Khyber Patrol."

The Cardinal's "angry beak" — Hobbit House — could be seen from all the way across the Iverson Gorge, as in the shot, again, from "Khyber Patrol." Hobbit House gave the Angry Cardinal its "stiff upper lip" — its snarling top beak, a focal point of the rock character's "anger." (Another one being the "angry eyebrow" above the beak, which you may be able to spot in the next photo.)

"The Trusted Outlaw" (1937)

The above shot from the Republic B-Western "The Trusted Outlaw" — one of the best productions for spotting cool Iverson stuff — shows a couple of the key components of the Angry Cardinal: the beak, or "stiff upper lip," provided by Hobbit House, and the angry eyebrow — essentially, the Angry Cardinal's head — at top center.

That same shot, with the key players identified.

"The Lone Gun" (1954)

Like the Cardinal's beak, the angry eyebrow could be seen from across the Gorge, as in the above shot from the George Montgomery Western "The Lone Gun."

Components of Iverson's "Angry Cardinal"

Here's that shot again from "The Lone Gun," highlighting some of the features that make up the Angry Cardinal. The bad news about Angry Cardinal is that most of the rock formation appears to have been destroyed. While the "lips," or beak, remain alive in the form of Hobbit House, other features such as the distinctive "angry eyebrow" no longer survive. In their place is a condo unit.

The view today from the same Overlook Point is far less striking.

Here's the same shot with a couple of labels detailing what happened to Angry Cardinal. I've also spotlighted Lone Ranger Rock here, as it's Iverson's most famous rock and serves as a reference point for many film location fans.

My previous post about the Angry Cardinal can be found by clicking here.

One rock to rule them all? A Hobbit House hides among the condos

Bilbo Baggins at home at Bag End

Bilbo Baggins, the Hobbit from "Lord of the Rings," would be right at home in the Cal West Townhomes community in Chatsworth, Calif. The condo development was built on the site of the former Iverson Movie Ranch — the most heavily filmed outdoor location in the history of the movies — and as luck would have it, there's a Hobbit House, or something that looks like one, hidden among the condos.

"The Trusted Outlaw" (1937)

I talked about my search for Plaza Rock in the previous blog entry, and I teased the fact that, while I was unable to find Plaza Rock amid the condos, I did find something pretty cool. What I found was the larger mushroom-shaped rock that is often seen behind Plaza Rock, as in the above screen shot from the Bob Steele movie "The Trusted Outlaw." For reasons I will explain below, I began referring to the larger rock as "Hobbit House."

Hobbit House as it appears today, amid the Cal West Townhomes

After discovering the mushroom-shaped rock in its current setting — where it serves as a large-scale planter decoration in the condo community — I realized the rock has something in common with the Hobbit dwellings in "Lord of the Rings." Like a Hobbit residence in the Shire, most of the rock is now underground.

"Stagecoach Express" (1942)

Here's a shot from the Don "Red" Barry B-Western "Stagecoach Express" from Republic that gives some idea of how tall and imposing Hobbit House was back in its movie days. The rock is at least twice the height of a stagecoach and much taller than Gorge Cabin.

"The Old Corral" (1936)

As you can see in this shot cropped from "The Old Corral," Hobbit House as it stood in the filming era towered over Plaza Rock, which was itself a substantial formation, seen here looming above a large car.

But to create the present-day community of condos surrounding Hobbit House, developers had to make compromises. One of those compromises was to bury most of Hobbit House, fill in the area in front of it with dirt and plant a sprawling lawn, as can be seen in this shot taken on a recent visit to the site.

Hobbit House then — in the 1942 movie "Stagecoach Express," on the left — and now, on the right.

Here's a side-by-side comparison of two shots — one showing Hobbit House as it appeared in the movies in 1942, on the left, and one taken in recent times revealing the rock's new role as a lawn sculpture, on the right. The comparison makes it clear just how significantly the rock formation's stature was diminished when the bulk of it was buried during grading for the condo project.

Today residents of the condo community have the privilege of driving past Hobbit House on their way to and from their garages, as the former movie rock is situated right next to a main driveway. As excited as I was to find the rock — and to learn that it had survived, more or less — I was saddened to see that it had been somewhat brutally "domesticated" in order to make it compatible with a community of townhomes.

 "The Trusted Outlaw" (1937)

But the fate of Hobbit House is better than what happened to Plaza Rock. Which reminds me, what DID happen to Plaza Rock?

All we know is what we can see ... and what we can see makes it pretty clear: Plaza Rock is no more. This shot and the even wider view a couple of photos up present a fairly complete picture of the area in front of and around Hobbit House. If Plaza Rock were still to be found, it would be somewhere in these two shots. My hunch is that Plaza Rock remains under this lawn, completely buried ... probably with the top part of the rock knocked off.

The other option is they broke it up, maybe blew it up, and trucked it off in pieces to a remote location, as illustrated above. (The photo is just an illustration, and has no connection with Iverson.) It strikes me as a lot of wasted effort when they could have just buried the thing. They knew they were going to fill the area with dirt, and that would have been the easiest way to get rid of the "problem" of Plaza Rock.

1952 aerial photo of the Upper Gorge

An aerial view of a portion of Iverson's Upper Gorge, taken in 1952 — when the rocks were still above ground — shows the proximity of Hobbit House and Plaza Rock, which were practically on top of each other. The aerial also highlights a couple of nearby features: the Angry Cardinal, a large rock formation that was the focus of this recent blog post, and the site of Gorge Cabin, which was already gone by 1952. You can click here to read an earlier blog entry that goes into detail about Gorge Cabin. My post previous to this current one, which focuses mainly on Plaza Rock, also discusses the location of Gorge Cabin, and can be seen by clicking here.

This is what the same area looks like today in an aerial view, noting the positions of Hobbit House and Plaza Rock among the condos.

Until someone comes up with a better idea, I'm going on the theory that Plaza Rock remains buried under the lawn. X marks the spot.

I know, it's only Plaza Rock ... but I like it

As those great rock 'n' roll philosophers the Rolling Stones once said, you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.

"The Bold Caballero" (1936)

I had an experience along those lines recently when I was searching the grounds of the former Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., looking for a particular "classic rock" from the movies — a stacked formation I call Plaza Rock. You can see it in the shot above, from the old Republic Zorro movie "The Bold Caballero," starring Bob Livingston. That's Plaza Rock filling up much of the left half of the screen.

"The Old Corral" (1936)

I started calling it Plaza Rock in my research because often when I saw the rock in the movies, it had a sort of dirt "plaza" in front of it, and appeared to be positioned strategically at a crossroads, as if presiding over the plaza. You can get an idea of the plaza in the above screen shot from the Gene Autry movie "The Old Corral." You may also want to pay attention to that much larger rock in the top right corner, which sort of lurks meaningfully behind Plaza Rock. That rock will be discussed in the post that follows this one, and it is a big part of the Plaza Rock story. But for now I'm going to hold off on talking about it and keep the focus on Plaza Rock itself.

Here's that same shot from "The Old Corral" with a couple of features noted, just to make sure we're on the same page.

"The Lone Ranger" (Republic serial, 1938)

During the years when the Gorge Cabin was in place, from about 1936-1944, Plaza Rock was one of the nearest rock features to the cabin. In fact, one thing that makes Plaza Rock especially important is that it helps pinpoint the location of the cabin. I've blogged previously about Gorge Cabin, and you can read more about it and see a bunch of other movie shots of the cabin by clicking here.

Promotional still, circa 1940-1943, featuring Gorge Cabin and much of Iverson's Upper Gorge

The above promotional still comes from the collection of film historian Jerry England, and it's one I've featured before on the blog. In addition to providing one of the clearest looks at the Gorge Cabin, this shot includes a number of important features of Iverson's Upper Gorge. No one has successfully determined — yet — which production the shot was made for, although it's thought to be from a Columbia serial, possibly "Batman" (1943). For now I'll have to give a date range for it rather than a specific year.

Here's that same early 1940s promo shot, with a number of key features marked. One thing that becomes clear upon studying some of these photos is that the cabin essentially occupied the "plaza" area in front of Plaza Rock.

"Outlaw's Son" (1957)

The above screen shot from "Outlaw's Son," a relatively obscure Western feature from United Artists that starred Dane Clark and Ben Cooper, provides a look at the same area where Gorge Cabin stood, but after the cabin was gone, in 1957. The camera angles are comparable, though far from exact, between this shot and the early 1940s promo shot above, and a couple of key rocks appearing in both photos serve to further pin down the location of the cabin. It would have been in the flat "plaza" area adjacent to Plaza Rock, toward the back of the shot, behind the tree that appears directly in the center of the shot.

The above markup shows an experiment I did that attempts to draw a closer comparison between the two preceding shots — with and without the cabin. I can't honestly say I'm convinced that this effort contributed much, if anything, to the process of pinpointing the former location of the cabin. But it was something I thought I'd try and this was the result, for better or worse. Besides Plaza Rock, the same large foreground rock appears in both shots, and the dotted line between the two rocks should intersect the cabin location.

Well, I didn't get what I wanted — I never found Plaza Rock in the real world, although I eventually developed a pretty solid theory as to what happened to it. I'll delve into that subject in the next post. (Please click here to read it.) For now I'll just mention again that in the process of searching for Plaza Rock, I found something unexpected, and pretty darn cool in its own right. As the Stones might say, I got what I needed. I've already dropped one big hint: It has to do with that larger rock you see hovering above Plaza Rock in some of the shots above. I'll fill in the details in the next post.

In the meantime, here are some links to Amazon in case you want to try to track down DVD copies of some of the productions mentioned in this post — or if you're Jonesing for some Old Stones:



Click here to see Western movie location expert Jerry England's blog, where he talks about the Iverson Movie Ranch, other filming locations in the Santa Susana Mountains, a little family history and all things cowboy.