Meanwhile back at the ranch -- Iverson Archways

After more than a dozen years studying the Iverson Ranch I am still sometimes confused about just which of the several archways I'm seeing in a movie.  This post will (hopefully) help sort out the various secret passages leading to and from the many owlhoot camps.

In earlier posts I told you about Devil's Doorway which is located within the Cal-West Townhome development.

Devil's Doorway north side (2007 photo)

Devil's Doorway north side in film

Devil's Doorway south side (2007 photo)

Devil's Doorway south side in film

Any six-gun hero worth his salt wanted to be filmed riding through Devil's Doorway, and the list of those who did is long indeed: William S Hart (1917), Buck Jones (1933), Tim McCoy (1935), Gene Autry (1936), Charles Starrett, Dick Foran, and Bob Steele (1937), Roy Rogers (1939), Ray Corrigan (1941), Bill Elliott (1943), Eddie Dean (1946), Clayton Moore (1949), Duncan Renaldo -- The Cisco Kid (1949) and Rex Allen (1950) just to mention a few.

And, I told you about Lash's Archway (photo above) which is located in the Indian Hills Mobile Village.

Lash's Archway in film

But, there was a third natural archway (lobby photo below) that was destroyed during the grading for the Cal-West Townhomes.

 We'll call it the "Gorge Archway" because it was located in the Iverson Gorge south of the Cal-West Townhomes location today. 

Gorge Archway in film

Additionally the ranch had a fake arch (photo below) also located in the Iverson Gorge next to "The Wall" (see my Crown Rock post for an explanation).  I must admit that different camera angles still leave me confused on occasion.

Screenshot (above) of the fake archway from a scene in The Perils of Nyoka (1942).

I hope this post helps you as much as it helped me.  I'll finish off with a wide angle screenshot of the south side of Devil's Doorway from a scene in The Trusted Outlaw (1937).  All the rocks in the foreground are long gone and have been replaced with condominiums.

'Meanwhile back at the ranch' is a continuing series about "rock stars" (landscape features) on the old Iverson Movie Location Ranch in Chatsworth, California.  For more information about the Iverson Movie Ranch see: http://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2011/10/iverson-movie-location-ranch-chatsworth.html