Old Western Movies filmed on location at historical sites

[Johnnie]

The other day we posted a question as to where a small part of the movie "Hombre" was filmed at it was not a movie set, we know that for sure, so these old films give rest of us that great privledge of seeing what these old historical mining towns look like then is a real great treat.


So we were imppeled to let the rest of you know that you can see what "Bodie" look like in the 1930s by going to your local video store and try renting the old western "Hells angle", filmed on location in Bodie, california. I got the privledge of catching this A. M. C. satilite channel about a two years ago and I did post the information on the bulletin board. the title, and the exact year it was filmed, but when I went to the archives i could not find it, but if we do find more details on the movie we will post it.

Johnnie & Sheila

[Flatiron]

If you go to the "Friends of Bodie" website, you'll find some information on the movies filmed there. Go to the forum and you can read a few posts about the movie you're talking about. I hope this helps. It's an interesting site, and is dedicated to helping preserve the history of Bodie, Ca. Good luck.

[Johnnie]

Thanks! Flatiron, We did presume that there was more than just one movie filmed in this very historical location, but this is the only western movie we have ever watched that we knew was not a movie set thanks again for that tip, on that (Bodie) web-site we will check out.

Sheila & Johnnie

[Dennis]

Does anyone know where the last scenes of the movie 'The law and Jake Wade' where shot? The site looks pretty amazing..

[Joel]

The film was shot on location in California's High Sierra mountain range, Lone Pine and Death Valley


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Law_and_Jake_Wade

[Ron B.]

Starring Henry Fonda & Terrence Hill was filmed in New Mexico: Mogollon, Acoma Pueblo, Gallup.
It has the Mogollon general store with the blacksmith sign in it. There are some scenes shot in the Little Fannie Mine buildings which is now gone thanks to the EPA superfund cleanup.

Ron

[Natalie's Boots]

The series Centennial from the late 1970's was shot in and around Keota.

[Johnnie]

Originally Posted by Natalie's Boots

The series Centennial from the late 1970's was shot in and around Keota.

My good friend Erich, work on series little house on the prairie, and Centennial,but work mostly on Little house that you spoke of and he told me that most filming for little house was on the private land of John Paul Getty north of Hollywood and N/W Simi Valley off the 118 hwy and most of the interior shots of the Olsons store and other scenes of inside shots all done in the studio and some of the moutain scenes were up in along the 49 hwy mining towns like Sonora, where the old steam engin was in the scenes was all around Sonora and Erich, also told me the series Paradise was filmed in and around The old mining town of Columbia.

What great job to have and work out in these old mining towns and have all that great scenery to look at every day.

Your fellow ghosttowner
Johnnie & Sheila

[oldman3000t]

I'm going to Colorado and plan to check out this Area were the movie was film. I found this link that has good information about the movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EUP9rOLf30

Colorado bond Aug, 22

Mike
San Diego

[Tsarevna]

If you're going to check out any of the lumber ghost towns in the Pacific Northwest (most of these are sites without standing remains,) there's an old, rare movie that's sometimes shown late at night called "Ring of Fire."

Vernonia is a town that was on it's way to becoming a ghost town due to declining timber sales and mill activity in NW Oregon, but it became a "chick" place to live, with a nice mill pond for fishing, and easy road access to Hwy 26, making it not too far to drive to Portland for the day, and not too far to drive to the beach for the day.

Anyways, this town has a population of about 2,000 now, and it's featured in the final episodes of Ax Men, season 1, a history channel show about logging.

The lumber mill pond is still there, but the mill is in ruins.
........................................

Back in the early 1960's, the mill was dilapidated, but very massive, so demolition wasn't much of an option. A movie producer came along and asked if it could be burned for a film, and whomever owned the mill said "yes."

As far as I know, the mill burning scene was spectacular, with several members of the cast and crew actually in danger of their lives at one point when the fire spread quickly, but this only made for a more exciting scene.

The movie also was filmed in Washington, at a crossing of the Wynoochee River. The movie scene called for a steam train to explode on a wooden tressle, and plunge into a canyon.

The wreck of the steam train is still there!
This website explains all about it.

http://www.brian894x4.com/RingofFire.html

All in all, the movie was filmed on an abandoned rail line that I estimate served ghost logging towns or camps in Washington.

The filming in Oregon at Vernonia is very close by to several ghost towns such as Keasy, Pittsburg, Pebble, Apiary, Cochran, Buxton, Vesper, Wilark, Timber (semi-ghost,) Enright, Timbucktu, Westtimber and Scofield.

http://www.vannattabros.com/geograph.html





The mill at Vernonia burns.





The train on the trestle in Washington, right before the explosion.





The remains of the train in the forest today.

...........................

The Ring of Fire movie was never released to VHS or DVD. Apparently it didn't do well in the theater. It would be nice if it were released, there's much local historical interest in it.