Meanwhile back at the ranch -- Durango's Pass

In my last "Meanwhile back at the ranch" post I told you there was a separation between boulders behind and below Cap Rock.  I made the discovery during a hike on what remains of the upper Iverson Ranch in the spring of 2010.

I could have easily missed this "Rock Star" find because the area is overgrown with brush and scrub oak trees as you can see in the photo above.  During the past two years an estate home has been constructed on this property, so it is now no longer accessible. 

I knew the instant I found the passage that it had to have been used in B-Westerns, but it took several months before I happened to see it in Charles Starrett's Desert Vigilante (1949).  Since I discovered it in a Durango Kid film it was only logical that I named my new found rock star Durango's Pass.  In the Desert Vigilante screenshot above Starrett is entering the north side of the pass.

A couple of weeks later--after finding the passage in the Starrett film--I found it again in an episode of the "Roy Rogers TV Show" (screenshot above), so it could have just as easily been named Roy's Pass :-)  In this shot Bullet is leading Roy into the south entrance of the pass.

Here's a screen capture from Fugitive Valley (1941) showing a gang of henchmen entering the north entrance.

In yet another screen capture of Durango's Pass a galloping rider leaves a cloud of dust as he heads into the pass in a scene from Republic's serial The Phantom Rider (1946).

As with most of the Iverson Ranch "Rock Stars" I almost always--eventually--find a six-gun hero posing in front of them.  The (Durago Pass) still above is Monte Hale capturing an outlaw in a scene from Outcasts of the Trail (1949).

'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