Westerns Filmed in Lone Pine, California

on September 15, 2011
Courtesy of Lone Pine Film History Museum

The Round-Up

The first feature film shot entirely on location near Lone Pine, Calif., stars Fatty Arbuckle as Sheriff “Slim” Hoover in The Round-Up, released in 1920.

Courtesy of Lone Pine Film History Museum

Lone Pine scenery

Arbuckle applies his makeup for a scene in The Round-Up. Director George Melford makes good use of Lone Pine’s stunning scenery, using the Alabama Hills and the snow-capped Sierra Nevada as backdrops.

Courtesy of Lone Pine Film History Museum

Hopalong Cassidy

William Boyd stars as the ultimate good guy in 1938 in the first of his 66 Hopalong Cassidy films—31 of which include scenes filmed in Lone Pine.

Courtesy of Lone Pine Film History Museum

Under Western Stars

In 1938, moviemakers film Roy Rogers in Under Western Stars, his starring debut.

Courtesy of Lone Pine Film History Museum

Utah

Roy Rogers made six films in Lone Pine, including Utah in 1945 with Dale Evans and Peggy Stewart.

Courtesy of Lone Pine Film History Museum

Cow Town

Gene Autry, Hollywood’s famous Singing Cowboy, with his horse, Champion, in the 1950 film Cow Town

Courtesy of Lone Pine Film History Museum

Down Mexico Way

Gene Autry in Down Mexico Way (1941)

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The Lone Ranger

Originally a fictional radio character, the Lone Ranger’s first appearance before the cameras is in the 1938 serial The Lone Ranger, shot in Lone Pine and directed by William Witney and John English.

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Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels

During the 1940s and 1950s, Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels portray the masked cowboy hero and his American Indian companion, Tonto, on TV and in several feature films.

Courtesy of Lone Pine Film History Museum

Westward Ho

John Wayne filmed 13 movies in Lone Pine, including Westward Ho in 1935. Because he was not a singing cowboy, his voice was dubbed for the movie.

Courtesy of Lone Pine Film History Museum

John Wayne

This candid photograph of Wayne was taken in Lone Pine by resident Paul Lauten while the actor filmed a celebrity advertisement for Great Western Bank five months before his 1979 death.

Courtesy of Lone Pine Film History Museum

The Tall T

Randolph Scott stars in the 1957 Columbia Pictures movie The Tall T, preserved by the U.S. Library of Congress as a “culturally significant” film. Scott made 12 movies in Lone Pine.

Courtesy of Lone Pine Film History Museum

Rider From Tucson

Tim Holt stars in Rider From Tucson in 1950. Holt made a series of Westerns during the 1940s.

Courtesy of Lone Pine Film History Museum

Hangman’s Knot

Stuntman Frank Falen stands atop a stagecoach riding through Lone Ranger Canyon in the 1952 Randolph Scott film Hangman’s Knot.

Courtesy of Lone Pine Film History Museum

Gunga Din

In addition to Westerns, many other genres of movies were filmed in Lone Pine, including the 1939 action-adventure picture Gunga Din starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The rocky landscape became the setting for 19th-century India, and the film was an Oscar nominee for best cinematography.

Courtesy of Lone Pine Film History Museum

Rawhide

Rawhide stars Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward film in a boulder-strewn area that Lone Pine locals call “the bowling alley.” The movie was released in 1951.