Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Chatsworth Equine Cultural Heritage Organization's Parting Gift


This plaque located on the old Iverson Movie Ranch at the Garden of the Gods filming location pays homage to six-gun heroes and their gallant horses…

"Garden of the Gods was part of the Iverson Movie Location Ranch which flourished from 1912 until the late 1960s,  the golden era of the "B" Western movies, and was known as the "most shot up location in movie history."

Hollywood cowboys Rex Allen, Gene Autry, William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy), Johnny Mack Brown, Sunset Carson, Gary Cooper, Ray "Crash" Corrigan, Eddie Dean, "Wild" Bill Elliott, William S. Hart, Hoot Gibson, Buck Jones, Allan "Rocky" Lane, Lash LaRue, Robert Livingston, Ken Maynard, Tim McCoy, Tom Mix, Clayton Moore (the Lone Ranger), George O'Brien, Roy Rogers, Randolph Scott, Charles Starrett (the Durango Kid), Bob Steele, and John Wayne, are a few of the hundreds who rode here with their trusted horses, and  left indelible hoof prints on these trails.

We pay  homage to those six-gun heroes and their gallant horses.  Thank you for the memories.

Chatsworth Equine Cultural Heritage Organization

In cooperation with Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy & Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority"


When we created the "Chatsworth Equine Cultural Heritage Organization" in 2000, we wrote the following mission statement designed to fight for horse-keeping rights and to preserve the history and culture of horses in Chatsworth:

MISSION STATEMENT

The Chatsworth Equine Cultural Heritage Organization (Chatsworth ECHO) is a grass roots group of horse owners, horse enthusiasts, and property owners in Chatsworth, that has discovered a need for a public voice to protect horse-keeping zoning, to protect our trails, to keep them safe, and to create a public awareness for equine safety. We believe we may be the last of a rich equine culture that has existed in Chatsworth for more than a hundred years. We are a 501(C)(3) not for profit, educational organization that is dedicated to advocating for Chatsworth's equestrian lifestyle.

Our primary goals are:

To protect and preserve horses as a vital part of the collective experience of Chatsworth. Horses are a living link to the history of Chatsworth; without horses, the economy, history, and character of Chatsworth would be profoundly different.

To protect horse-keeping zoning and property rights.
 
To protect and preserve Chatworth's equestrian culture.
 
To protect and preserve existing equestrian trails, easements, and access to equestrian trails.
 
To establish a voice in public affairs, such as planning commission meetings, city council meetings, and other governmental hearings that may affect equestrian trails, easements, and access to equestrian trails.
 
To ensure that new equestrian trails are constructed as mandated by subdivision map approval, by community plan, or by proposed state, city, or federal park criteria.
 
To protect and conserve the local environment around the existing equestrian trails of the Chatsworth community.
 
To keep equestrian trails safe from dumping of hazardous waste and trash.
 
To keep riders safe from undesirable individuals who are loitering or camping in and around equestrian trails.
 
To establish a public awareness of equestrian - vehicle safety.

Then a few years later, in 2003, when I established the Chatsworth Neighborhood Council's first Equestrian Committee I used the exact same language for its mission statement. 

That being done there was no need to continue ECHO, and in 2009, we agreed to disband. The board members voted to use the remaining bank balance to work with the Santa Monica Conservancy to put up a plaque in the Garden of the Gods as a way to remember the legacy of movie horses and cowboy stars that made Chatsworth the Western icon that it will always be.


As a cowboy activist I've worked for many years to protect horse-keeping in Chatsworth. Here are a few links that reflect that history...





Vaqueros at San Fernando Valley Roundup by James Walker 1870s


To learn more about Western movie locations in Chatsworth and their filmography, go to Chatsworth Rock Stars http://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2012/05/chatsworths-rock-stars.html

About the Iverson Movie Ranch...


In the San Fernando Valley's backyard, there remains a fantasyland that was forever made famous by Hollywood…

A place where Superman once captured the evil Luthor in his hidden Stoney Point cave, where Batman wrestled a criminal on top of a speeding locomotive, where Tarzan the Ape Man found an ancient elephant graveyard, and where John Wayne's fighting Seabees pushed a Japanese tank off the same cliff that Nyoka used to escape Vultura’s killer ape.

The place is Boulder Pass. It was the jungles of India and Africa, the sands of the Sahara, the Khyber Pass between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the plains of Montana, and the High Sierras and the Rocky Mountains all rolled into one. It was the scene of stagecoach holdups, posses chasing outlaws on owlhoot (outlaw) trails, Indians attacking white settlers in remote cabins, flying rocket men, and unearthly spaceship landings. It was a land for make-believe. It could be anything a Hollywood director fancied.

Boulder Pass is a fictitious name borrowed from an old B-Western movie. The real place is the Santa Susana Pass in Chatsworth, California. For nearly three-quarters of a century, the Santa Susana Pass was home to the granddaddy of all movie location ranches--the Iverson Movie Ranch.

Here's a chronological link to hundreds of film titles lensed in Chatsworth...
http://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2012/04/celebrating-100-years-of-chatsworth_30.html

To learn more about Jerry England and his books visit http://www.cowboyup.com/


Saturday, April 8, 2017

2017, 14th Annual Chatsworth Day of the Horse


It's hard to believe it's been 14 years since I started the Chatsworth Day of the Horse back in 2004.

Lots of younger, hard working folks are keeping the event alive and well.

As usual I'll be there with my books for sale...

Rendezvous at Boulder Pass - Hollywood's Fantasyland 
by Jerry England, a primer on Chatsworth Movie Ranches
is OUT-OF-PRINT, but I have a few ebook copies (pdf) for sale at $20.00

Photographs, movie stills, lobby cards, and screenshots capture the Iverson Ranch as it looks today and as it appeared during a half century of movie-making between 1912 and the late 1970s.

In Chatsworth's (California) backyard, there remains a fantasyland that was forever made famous by Hollywood...  

A place where Superman once captured the evil Luthor in his hidden Stoney Point cave, where Batman wrestled a criminal on top of a speeding locomotive, where Tarzan the Ape Man found an ancient elephant graveyard, and where John Wayne's fighting Seabees pushed a Japanese tank off the same cliff that Nyoka used to escape Vultura's killer ape.  

The place is Boulder Pass. It was the jungles of India and Africa, the sands of the Sahara, the Khyber Pass between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the plains of Montana, and the High Sierras and the Rocky Mountains all rolled into one. It was the scene of stagecoach holdups, posses chasing outlaws on owlhoot (outlaw) trails, Indians attacking white settlers in remote cabins, flying rocket men, and unearthly spaceship landings. It was a land for make-believe. It could be anything a Hollywood director fancied.

Boulder Pass is a fictitious name borrowed from an old B-Western movie. The real place is the Santa Susana Pass in Chatsworth, California. For nearly three-quarters of a century, the Santa Susana Pass was home to the granddaddy of all movie location ranches - the Iverson Ranch. It was also the home of several other filming locations, including the Brandeis Ranch, Corriganville, Burro Flats, Bell Location Ranch, Chatsworth Lake, Roy Rogers' Double R Bar Ranch, Spahn Ranch, Southern Pacific Railroad's tunnels, and the Chatsworth train depot.

362 pages, softcover, B&W, © 2010 Echo Press


Also back by popular demand...


Chatsworth Movie Locations DVD documentary video for sale at $15.00

presentation to the Chatsworth Historical Society, Jan. 18, 2011.

features...

Callaway Went Thataway - 1951 film clip from a Western comedy featuring the entire Iverson Ranch - (00:02:57)

Iverson Location Ranch - 3-Part Series examines: 
• Garden of the Gods, • Indian Hills, and • Upper Ranch filming areas - (00:34:44)

Highways & Byways - A nostalgic look at Chatsworth highways as seen in the movies - (00:36:38)

Funny Business on the Ranch - some of the best comedy scenes ever filmed in Chatsworth - (00:41:11)

Explosions & Wrecks - Special effects (FX) lensed on the Iverson Ranch - (00:47:16)

Includes a brief look at other Chatsworth filming locations

Bell Motion Picture Ranch - (00:48:31)

Brandeis Movie Ranch - (00:52:18)

Burro Flats (now known as the Rocketdyne SSFL) - (00:53:10)

Chatsworth Lake (aka Chatswoth Reservoir)  - (00:54:28)

Chatsworth Trains (depot, tunnels, tracks, etc) - (01:03:12)

Double R Bar Ranch - (Roy Rogers & Dale Evans former home) - (01:04:23)

Total running time just over a hour1:04:23  $15.00



Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas
by Jerry England for sale at $23.00

A photographic history of "B" Western movie location ranches in Chatsworth, California with more than 350 photos of scenes lensed in the Santa Susana Mountains.

Witness Tom Mix, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, John Wayne, Allan Lane, Bill Elliott, Charles Starrett, the Lone Ranger, Buster Crabbe, Tim McCoy, Lash LaRue, and many other six-gun heroes as they ride the pony trails of the gone, but not forgotten Iverson Movie Location Ranch, Brandeis Movie Ranch, Bell Moving Picture Ranch, Corriganville Movie Ranch, Spahn Ranch, and Burro Flats. 

View action scenes filmed at Chatsworth's reservoir, train depot, and railroad tunnels. 


Then follow your favorite Hollywood cowboy through the western streets, outlaw shacks, stagecoach stops, and ranch houses you've seen in hundreds of "B" Westerns.

152 pages, softcover, B&W, © 2008 Echo Press

To learn more visit my website cowboyup.com

If you are new to horses, please check out my post about horse safety 

Happy Trails