Charles Bronson in "Bonanza" ... and the "Charles Bronson Hanging Tree"

Charles Bronson in the "Bonanza" episode "The Underdog" (1964)

Charles Bronson was already a pretty big movie star when he worked the Iverson Movie Ranch in 1964 as the featured guest star in the "Bonanza" episode "The Underdog," which premiered Dec. 13, 1964.

Outdoor action for the "Bonanza" episode was taped primarily on the South Rim of the Upper Iverson. That's Bronson on the right as half-breed horse thief Harry Starr, enjoying a little campfire conversation with his gang.

Bronson wasn't quite "Death Wish" big yet — the first installment in his career-defining film franchise was still 10 years away. But he already had a solid resume, having put his stamp on "The Magnificent Seven," "Machine-Gun Kelly" and "The Great Escape," among others. In the next few years Bronson would also chalk up "The Dirty Dozen" and the movie often cited as the quintessential spaghetti Western, "Once Upon a Time in the West."

Bronson's second-in-command, Lee Burton, was played by Tom Reese, a formidable actor in his own right.

Bronson got a chance to prove he could handle a horse on the "Bonanza" shoot, and acquitted himself admirably. Already a veteran of a number of Westerns at the time, the actor had no problem negotiating the rugged terrain.

A primitive horse corral was set up on the South Rim for the shoot, along with some other minor construction. The above shot includes familiar rock features in the background, which help pinpoint where the action was set.

One of the features in the screen shot is a rock I call Moschops, which you can read more about by clicking here. Moschops is also featured in this entry about the shoot for the 1986 movie "The Tomb."

Here's a look at Moschops in recent times, near the top center of the frame.

This screen shot includes some of the other minor construction that turns up in the episode — possibly a mine entrance, visible at the right of the frame. The photo also features the South Rim rocks known as the Pixies.

The two main rocks that make up the Pixies are highlighted here. Click here to learn more about the Pixies.

This shot answers the question, "Did Iverson have a hanging tree?" And the answer is: Oh, did it ever — and it still does! Thanks to the "Bonanza" episode, in which Bronson's character is found swinging from the tree — apparently having been betrayed by his own gang — I've taken to calling it the "Charles Bronson Hanging Tree." But I'd be willing to bet Bronson wasn't the first unfortunate soul to dangle from the tree.

The Charles Bronson Hanging Tree, as it appears today

Best of all, the Charles Bronson Hanging Tree is still around, and can be found pretty easily on the South Rim of the former Upper Iverson. This is a different angle from the one seen in the "Bonanza" episode, but it's the same tree. It should be noted that the tree sits on private property, in the front yard of a large home.

The large rock next to the driveway is the famous movie rock the Molar, featured in countless B-Western chase scenes going back to the 1930s. Once you find the Molar, the Hanging Tree is easy to find — it's a part of the same circular driveway. You can click here to read an earlier blog post about the discovery of the Molar.

Here's another view of the Charles Bronson Hanging Tree in recent years, this time a little closer to the angle seen in "Bonanza" — and with the Molar now to the left of the tree's trunk. You may be able to match up some of the tree's main limbs with the shot below from "Bonanza."

In this shot from the "Bonanza" episode, the Molar can be seen toward the left. Another marker, Rock in the Field, is visible in the distance, although it is barely discernible.

The Molar and Rock in the Field are identified here. The shot provides an unusual angle on the Molar, but through close examination I was able to make a positive ID on the rock.

Bear Tree, as seen in "The Adventures of Spin and Marty"  (1955)

— a close neighbor to the Charles Bronson Hanging Tree

Regular readers of this blog may recognize the area where the Charles Bronson Hanging Tree was found as being in close proximity to the location of another famous tree — Bear Tree, named after its appearance in the Disney TV serial "The Adventures of Spin and Marty." Please click here to read my earlier blog entry about Bear Tree.

Here's a fun video clip of the "Bonanza" episode's climactic sequence, featuring a fight to the death among the rocks of Iverson's South Rim. It may seem overly cautious to give a spoiler warning about a TV show from 50 years ago, but even so: If you don't want to know the episode's surprise twist, don't watch the clip. Also, I should mention that this particular clip does not include the Charles Bronson Hanging Tree.

"The Tomb": A rare shoot at the Iverson Movie Ranch in the 1980s

An unusual entry in Iverson Movie Ranch lore is the 1986 movie "The Tomb," directed by Fred Olen Ray with a cast that includes Cameron Mitchell, John Carradine and Sybil Danning. The plot involves the theft of artifacts from an unmarked Egyptian grave — which turns out to be located on the Upper Iverson — and the revenge sought by the ancient Egyptian woman whose tomb it was. It's apparently based on a Bram Stoker novel, "The Jewel of Seven Stars."

A few well-chosen landmarks such as the Sphinx and the Pyramids — presumably stock footage — place the action in Egypt, before it shifts to the Upper Iverson. (Note that the Iverson Movie Ranch does have its own Sphinx, also known as Eagle Beak, which can be seen here.) What's interesting to me about "The Tomb" is that 1986 was almost two decades after Iverson stopped being a working movie ranch, and only a few productions were filmed there around this time. The movie includes just one short sequence at Iverson, but it's important footage — and it includes the appealing sight of cast members tromping around the South Rim of the Upper Iverson with a couple of camels.

The above shot features a rock I call Tamale, in the top left corner. It was widely seen in the B-Westerns and serials of the 1930s through the 1950s, and I believe it still exists today although I've never seen it. The area where it was located (and should still be located) is a spot I would love to get a look at but it's part of a private estate and remains essentially unexplored by movie historians. "The Tomb" may be the last movie to be filmed in this area before it was developed.

On their journey to find the hidden tomb, the adventurers pass some other familiar Iverson sights, including these iconic stone towers that have been called the Totem Rocks, Totem Pole Rocks, Easter Island Committee or simply Easter Island. The distinctive overhanging tower — Notch Rock — seen just right of center (directly above the head of the camel on the right) has at times served as the clincher that a production is shot at Iverson. More about Easter Island and the Notch, or Notch Rock, can be found here.

This shot from "The Tomb" is probably one of the last overviews of a portion of the Upper Iverson to appear in the movies. The shot looks north toward Oat Mountain (in the distant background, toward the right), with some of the rocks of the South Rim in the foreground. The photo below shows what this area looks like today.

Here's a view of approximately the same portion of the Upper Iverson in more recent times, from a 2009 visit, showing a number of the estates that have been built on the former movie ranch property. Construction has slowed considerably in recent years, but still continues. In many cases the landmark rocks seen in the movies and TV shows have been removed to make way for houses, and in other cases they remain preserved, in a way, as part of the landscape — often in driveways and back yards. Still others survive in hiking areas around the fringes of the developed land.

As the two American adventurers and their Egyptian guide close in on the hidden tomb, they hike below an instantly recognizable rock I call Moschops, which I've talked about in a previous post. In the shot above, Moschops is the pointed rock in the background, above and to the right of the guide. Moschops is still in place on the South Rim, and this shot turned out to be helpful in my own search for the tomb.

Here's a shot of Moschops and its environs in more recent times, taken during my search for the "tomb" in October 2011. This shot has some of the same rocks in the foreground that are seen in the movie shot, and these rocks turned out to be where the tomb entrance was situated. Moschops is pretty small in this shot, but it's in the background, along the skyline, a little right of center. I'll highlight it in the shot below.

This is the same shot, with Moschops and the tomb entrance pointed out.

Back to the movie, at last the team arrives at the secret entrance to the tomb — and heads on in.

One surprising thing — after finding the place myself and realizing how small it is — is that the filmmakers were able to film the entry in a continuous shot and somehow all three of those guys squeezed in there, into what amounts to little more than a small crack between a couple of rocks.

Here's the secret tomb entrance today, still readily accessible on the Upper Iverson's South Rim. The area surrounding this feature was heavily filmed, and it surprised me when I found this spot because cave entrances and arches are generally big attractions and got plenty of use during the filming days ... but this one appears to have been largely overlooked. I'm sure it will eventually turn up in other productions, but at this point I can say I've never seen it anywhere else. In honor of the movie's featured use of this spot, I've been calling this rock formation Tomb Rock, and referring to the cave itself as the Tomb (or alternately, Tomb Cave).

Sort of an amusing coda to the quest for the tomb is that once the boys got inside they found a huge hidden chamber, complete with plenty of treasure and smooth, carefully built walls — not at all what one would suspect from the outside!

Classic Rock seen in "The Lone Ranger": Moschops — prehistoric "pre-mammal," beloved childhood toy ... and distinctive movie rock

"The Lone Ranger" (1950)

Here's a rock that doesn't tend to come up very often but I find worth talking about all the same. This sighting in "The Lone Ranger" is one of only a handful of times I've spotted the rock in a movie or TV show. I call it Moschops, after a prehistoric animal with a similar stance. In the photo above, Moschops is the distinctive rock at top-center — from this angle it has sort of a porpoise-head shape. The screen shot is from an episode of the "Lone Ranger" TV show called "Troubled Waters," which premiered March 9, 1950, during the show's first season.

To make sure we're on the same page, this is the same "Lone Ranger" screen shot with Moschops highlighted.

This is what Moschops, the rock, looks like today. It can be seen along the ridge in the South Rim area of the Upper Iverson. It's kind of hard to recognize, but if you look at the "negative space" — the shape of the sky backdrop between Moschops and the rock to the right of it — you should be able to spot the similarities in the outline. As usual, the angle isn't exactly the same.

Here's what the original Moschops supposedly looked like. Maybe some of you had toy versions of it as a kid, with your prehistoric critters. I had a couple of them, which came in bags of "prehistoric mammals," even though it's listed as a "mammal-like reptile."

Here's what the toy version of Moschops looks like.

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.

Below is a link to a nice DVD set of the TV show "The Lone Ranger" on Amazon.