"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" reveals a previously unknown fake cave in Garden of the Gods

"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp"

The Iverson Movie Ranch was home to a number of well-used fake caves and fake mines during the filming days, but I recently heard about a little-known one that was set up in Central Garden of the Gods in the late 1950s.

"Wyatt Earp" episode "Frontier Surgeon"

Iverson researcher Cliff Roberts noticed the cave in "Frontier Surgeon," an episode of the TV series "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp." The episode premiered Jan. 19, 1960, and would have been shot in 1959.

Phantom — the north face

The cave entrance appeared over a large crack on the south side of Phantom, one of the most iconic boulders in Garden of the Gods. The above photo from recent years shows the more familiar north side of Phantom.

"Tennessee's Partner" (1955): Anthony Caruso in the crack on the south side of Phantom

The crack on Phantom's south side is famous in its own right, having played a pivotal role in the RKO Western "Tennessee's Partner." Spoiler alert: Skip ahead if you don't want to know that a certain U.S. president gets gunned down near here. As Iverson location shoots go, that "Tennessee's Partner" sequence is a barnburner.

"Frontier Surgeon": Fake cave built over the crack

The crack on the south side of Phantom is right where the fake cave was built that appears in "Wyatt Earp." This area is "Grubstake's Claim," so named after its role in "Tennessee's Partner."

Damian O'Flynn guest stars on the episode as Dr. Goodfellow, the "Frontier Surgeon" of the title. The other two guys are series regulars.

At one point in "Frontier Surgeon," bad guys start pouring out of the fake cave, guns blazing.

This wide shot gives a better idea of where the cave was located. Besides the famous scene in "Tennessee's Partner," the same area in Central Garden of the Gods was where Elvis Presley filmed the original tent scene for "Harum Scarum" in 1965. A few feet away and a few years earlier, wild boars caused trouble in "Old Yeller."

The shot is taken with the camera aimed toward the west, with a hazy view of the Santa Susana Mountains in the distance, to the west of the Iverson Movie Ranch.

This is a shot I took not long ago of that same part of the Santa Susana Mountains. This ridge west of Garden of the Gods, which I call Boat Hill, can be spotted in the background in a lot of old movies and TV shows.

Here's another recent shot that includes Boat Hill. Part of Central Garden of the Gods can also be seen in this photo, including the important marker Getaway Rock.

Getaway Rock turns up again in the "Wyatt Earp" sequence, as noted here. Also note the large bump on the rock on which Wyatt Earp is leaning as he and his associates get the jump on the outlaw gang.

This photo from a recent visit captures the same bump on the rock, near the top left corner, along with a partial view of Getaway Rock, to the left of the bump.

The angle here is different from the one seen in the TV show. You may or may not be able to match up the bumps in the two shots, but other features are readily identifiable.

The horizontal lines can also be seen in the "Wyatt Earp" shots.

This shot from "Wyatt Earp" has it all: the bump, the horizontal lines, a tiny semblance of the diagonal crack where the fake cave entrance construction begins ... and the entrance itself.

The bump, the lines and the cave are all noted here.

A huge diagonal crack appears in the recent shot, near the right end of the horizontal lines, but does not appear in the "Wyatt Earp" shot. That's because in the TV show the crack marks the beginning of the section of the rock that is filled in with material forming the fake cave entrance.

"Tennessee's Partner"

The huge crack is also visible in the shot of Anthony Caruso from "Tennessee's Partner."

In "Tennessee's Partner," we also get a good look at the main cave area, just to the right of the diagonal crack. The cave, which is shallow, appears in its natural state in the movie — in contrast to the "enhanced" artificial cave we see in "Wyatt Earp."

How about a special shoutout to this important little diagonal sliver of shadowy intent — I mean, sliver of a shadowy indent — pointing the way to where the fake cave material begins, to the right.

I'd say roughly this much is fake. I don't know, fake caves can be pretty lame. Speaking from the heart ... I won't come out and say this one is lame, but let's just say it's not the most convincing fake cave ever seen.

Lane Bradford, in "Wyatt Earp"

I'd be remiss not to point out Lane Bradford, one of the most familiar bad guys in the B-Westerns.

He's right here in all those shots of the cave. His character in the "Wyatt Earp" episode is "Swanee." Having a character name can be an upgrade for a TV outlaw. Bradford was often billed generically as "henchman."

Lane Bradford, right, with fellow outlaw Jimmy Noel in the "Wyatt Earp" episode

Bradford never lost his stride when the Westerns shifted to TV in the 1950s. The prolific actor tallied in the ballpark of 250 credits, about evenly distributed between B-Westerns and TV series.

Note the chin on Bradford — his trademark chin signifies both strength and weakness. Mostly strength — he was a formidable thug. On the other hand, as a perennial outlaw, sometimes his job was to make dumb decisions. My guess is Lane Bradford the actor was a man of high intellect who knew how to maximize his assets.

That chin can be hard to miss. In this shot it almost looks as though it's drawn in. Bradford wasn't the only tough outlaw in the Westerns to boast an awe-inspiring chin, but he may have been the most memorable.

Today a tree gets in the way, but this is a look at Grubstake's Claim on the south side of Phantom.

The same diagonal crack and main cave entrance can still be found.

A wider shot shows more of the south side of Phantom, but this is mainly a better look at the tree that makes access to the cave a challenge.

Swanee, played by Lane Bradford, schemes to get the dying man's money

In some "Wyatt Earp" shots we catch glimpses of an indented area on the rock, to the right of the fake cave. In this shot it's near the top left corner.

Take a look at this indented area.

I took this photo of the same indented area on a recent visit to the site.

This is the distinctive indented area on the rock.

Also here we see some worn signs of old graffiti.

Graffiti near entrance to Grubstake's Claim (2011)

The graffiti has been there for some time. It already looked worn-out — and appeared exactly the same as it does now — when I took this photo back in 2011.

One of the many interesting features of the cave area is this hole.

Going back to that original screen shot of Anthony Caruso from "Tennessee's Partner," notice that the same hole is seen in the movie, and it has what appears to be some kind of metal blade sticking out of it.

I have this other angle on the metal blade, but it doesn't add much. The "shiv" and its shadow can be seen in the bottom right corner. The hole's origin story remains untold, although we know it predates the "Wyatt Earp" cave.

"Outlaws of Boulder Pass" (1942): Phantom Shack

It should be noted that the same site was home to the Phantom Shack in the 1940s. If I had to guess I'd say the hole is most likely an artifact of this period and probably originally helped hold the shack in place.

"Six Gun Gospel" (1943): Phantom Shack

But even if the hole originated as part of the support system for the Phantom Shack, it may have been called upon again in 1959 to serve as an anchor point for the fake cave in "Wyatt Earp."

"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp"

While many of the fake caves and fake mines on the old Iverson Movie Ranch stood for years and were used repeatedly, the fake cave seen in "Wyatt Earp" appears to have been in place for only a short time — possibly for a single production.

"Tennessee's Partner": Anthony Caruso holds Grubstake McNiven's claim sign

In telling the tale of Grubstake's Claim out behind Phantom in "Tennessee's Partner," the movie goes so far as to display the claim sign. In a way, the sign works not only to stake Grubstake's claim in the movie, but also to stamp this historic filming location as "Grubstake's Claim" ... at the risk of over-romanticizing the movies.

Dinosaur-related news: A rock that looks like a trachodon

Trachodon

This rock can be found north of Garden of the Gods, in a section of the former Iverson Movie Ranch that has been preserved as parkland. I'd be willing to bet that "Trachodon" found its way into a movie or TV show, but at this point I've still never seen it, other than in person. If you happen to spot this thing anywhere, please let us know!

The Sinclair Dinoland version of a trachodon

Here's another rendition of a trachodon, from Sinclair Dinoland. Who knows how accurate either version is — to state the obvious, no one alive today has seen an actual trachodon, as they lived in the Campanian age, about 80 million years ago. Make a note of that — it might come in handy for bar trivia.

"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" TV episode: "One" (April 15, 1958)

Unlike its fellow dinosaur Trachodon, Stegosaurus shows up regularly in movies and TV shows — including multiple appearances on the "Wyatt Earp" TV series. Click here to see another example from "Wyatt Earp."

1950s-vintage Marx dinosaurs — not the author's collection

I probably see more "dinosaurs" at Iverson than I should — I blame my childhood obsession with my toy dinos. I think I still have two shoeboxes full of them somewhere. If you ever want to visit a site run by someone who's WAY into the toy dinos ... check out this link.

"Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1959)

It was probably "Journey to the Center of the Earth," more than any other single event, that was responsible for my obsession. I've been partial to dimetrodons ever since — and I know I'm not alone!

Shazam! Historic stone buttressing found in Garden of the Gods

An exciting new discovery was made in the past week in the park area preserved as the Garden of the Gods in Chatsworth, Calif. The site is part of the former Iverson Movie Ranch, and film historians have located the stone buttressing for an old movie road. The road and buttressing were seen in a handful of movies and TV shows, including an appearance in the 1941 Republic serial "Adventures of Captain Marvel."

"Adventures of Captain Marvel" (1941)

This shot from Chapter 12 of the serial shows the buttressing along the bottom of the photo. I became aware of the buttressing thanks to screen shots from Kurt Spitzner, who runs the wildly informative Spin and Marty site cinchset.com — a site I can enthusiastically recommend to anyone who has an interest in filming locations. This is the definitive screen shot of the buttressing in "Captain Marvel," and also features distinctive background rocks.

The tall rock in the top left corner pinponts the shot as Garden of the Gods, and with that I figured the buttressing was as good as found. But as tends to be the case at Iverson, insights don't always come easy. I wound up making a series of expeditions deep into Garden of the Gods in search of the elusive buttressing, coming up empty-handed each time — and only later learning that I had been searching too far south.

Ultimately it was fellow film historian and Iverson explorer Cliff Roberts who located the feature, on a visit in early November. This is what the buttressing looks like today, with the same rocks visible in the background that appear in the "Captain Marvel" shot. The buttressing can be seen near the bottom right corner of the shot.

Another angle reveals more of the buttressing, which is in the process of "going native" and has begun to be overtaken by the local flora.

Garden of the Gods Park (Bing bird's-eye view)

Here's an overview of the Garden of the Gods area as seen from the east, indicating where the buttressing is located. I recommend clicking on the picture to see a bigger version of it.

You may be able to find your way to the buttressing more easily using this zoomed-in version of the bird's-eye view. From the park entrance off Redmesa Road (just north of Santa Susana Pass Road), head up the Garden of the Gods Trail and keep going more or less in the same direction, straight across to the western side of Garden of the Gods. The buttressing area is just past the Phantom.

Garden of the Gods (1952 aerial photo)

Here's another perspective on where the buttressing is located in relation to the rest of Garden of the Gods, as it appeared in an aerial shot from 1952, during the filming era. The road that was buttressed by the stone structure was part of a network of dirt roads that criss-crossed the movie ranch. It appears to have been a minor road, and is barely visible in the old aerials.

The segment of the road in the area of the buttressing seems to roughly follow this path. The road appears to end abruptly just south of the buttressing, where the terrain becomes too rocky for a road.

Here's another look at the 1952 aerial without annotation directly on top of the road, to make it easier to see the road. However, I'll note again that the road is barely visible in these old aerials. Here I've also noted Sphinx and Phantom, two major landmarks located near the buttressed road.

The road that the buttressing was once there to buttress is little more than a dirt trail today, as this Bing bird's-eye view points out. This view is looking from the north.

This version of the bird's-eye view adds IDs for a few of the surrounding rock features.

"Adventures of Captain Marvel" owns at least a couple of major distinctions. Not only do many serial aficionados call it the best serial ever made — although Republic's "Spy Smasher" is also usually in the conversation — but "Captain Marvel" also is credited with being the production that started the trend of superheroes making the jump from comic books to the big screen — a trend that remains a big part of popular culture today, with Spider-Man, the Avengers, X-Men, Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy and others following suit.

Captain Marvel's Superman-like qualities

Captain Marvel is often compared to Superman, who became more of a household name due in large part to the popular 1950s TV show "Adventures of Superman." This 1941 poster for "Captain Marvel" uses language reminiscent of the familiar "Superman" TV opening: "Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!" Both descriptions appear to have originated in 1941, with the Superman mantra going back to the first of a series of eight revered Fleischer Studios "Superman" cartoons.

"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" (1958)

The stone buttressing in the Garden of the Gods area did not appear frequently in productions, but it does show up in at least one TV show, "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp." The sequence seen above and in the shots that follow appears in the episode "My Husband," which first aired June 10, 1958.

This shot from the "Wyatt Earp" episode takes place moments later, following a bloodbath, and has the nice added touch of a dead guy's arm draped over the buttressing, not to mention another dead guy face down just below it. Earp is recognizable in his white shirt, second from left, and that's Doc Holliday sitting on the rock at right.

Earp, played by Hugh O'Brian, and Myron Healey as Doc showcase another vantage point on the buttressing.

Why not get another look at that dead guy's arm as long as Doc's sitting there showing off another angle on the buttressing area.