Wildfire Threatens Historic

Westerns Shooting Locale

By Rich Drees

     July 12, 2006- A wildfire has razed a portion of Pioneertown, California, a small desert community where dozens of Hollywood Westerns were filmed. With winds of up to 40 miles per hour fanning flames across some 17,000 acres, over 1,000 residents of the town and surrounding area were forced to flea.

     The blaze had started over the weekend as a series of lightening-sparked smaller fires. Although the fire had been contained earlier, it erupted again yesterday afternoon. By late last evening San Bernardino County officials were declaring a state of emergency. Firefighters are reportedly being hampered by the steep terrain.

     Although it is being reported that some 30 homes and other buildings in the Pioneertown area were destroyed, there is no word yet if any historical buildings are among those damaged.

     Located in California’s Yucca Valley some 120 miles east of Los Angeles, Pioneertown was built in 1946 as a set for western films with several of the buildings doubling as housing for actors and crew. Among the original investors in the project were the singing group The Sons of the Pioneers, for whom the town is named for, Roy Rogers, Bud Abbott, character actors Dick Curtis and Russell Hayden, gossip columnist Louella Parsons and producer Philip N. Krasne.

     The town and surrounding area served as the backdrop for many of Hollywood’s horse operas. Gene Autry filmed Indian Territory (1950) and Last Of The Pony Riders (1953) there. The area outside of town also doubled for Mexico in John Sturges’ 1953 noir thriller Jeopardy starring Barbara Stanwyck. The site also served as a shooting locale for the Russ “Lucky” Hayden television series Judge Roy Bean. Several of the Cisco Kid movies as well as the subsequent television series were also shot in the area.

     Movie production dried up in the 1960s as Pioneertown became more of a residential community.