Monument Valley, Arizona

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  • MONUMENT VALLEY
    Arizona


    Duke and John Ford made 6 movies there


    Stagecoach.1939. John Ford
    Angel and the Badman.1947.John Wayne
    Fort Apache.1948.John Ford
    3 Godfathers.1948.John Ford
    She Wore A Yellow Ribbon.1949.John Ford
    The Searchers .1956.John Ford


    and of course John Ford used the locations in other Movies too.








    Monument Valley is used in many films, including
    Back to the Future III.The Eiger Sanction, Once Upon a Time In the West, Forest Gump


    Here's a link to the media about MV,
    including more recent films made there, some in the 1990's/2000


    List Of Appearances Of Monument Valley In The Media


    Monument Valley, an area of striking, flat-topped mesas and buttes,
    was a tough location in 1938, at the end of a 200-mile dirt road from
    Flagstaff, Arizona.
    The Navajo nation, already troubled by disease and unemployment,
    were employed to play Apaches – one of the many nations they
    were to play over the years. The Valley is not a National Park,
    as you might expect, but a Tribal Park still belonging to,
    and managed by, the Navajo.


    Stagecoach- Location Photos




    The film established Monument Valley, on the Arizona-Utah border,
    as an icon of the American Old West, although, of the passengers,
    only John Wayne actually trekked out to Utah.
    None of the principals made it past California’s San Fernando Valley.




    Monument Valley
    is located on the southern border of Utah with northern Arizona (around 36°59′N 110°6′W). The valley lies within the range of the Navajo Nation Reservation near the town of Goulding and is accessible from U.S. Highway 163. The Navajo name for the valley is Tsé Bii' Ndzisgaii (Valley of the Rocks).


    Geology
    The area is part of the Colorado Plateau. The floor is largely Cutler Red siltstone or its sand deposited by the meandering rivers that carved the valley. The valley's vivid red color comes from iron oxide exposed in the weathered siltstone. The darker,blue-gray rocks in the valley get their color from manganese oxide.


    The buttes are clearly stratified, with three principal layers. The lowest layer is Organ Rock shale, the middle de Chelly sandstone and the top layer is Moenkopi shale capped by Shinarump siltstone.


    Between 1948 and 1967, the southern extent of the Monument Upwarp was mined for uranium, which occurs in scattered areas of the Shinarump siltstone; vanadium and copper are associated with uranium in some of these deposits.


    Monument Valley provides perhaps the most enduring and definitive images of the American West. The isolated red mesas and buttes surrounded by empty, sandy desert have been filmed and photographed countless times over the years for movies, advertisements and travel brochures. Because of this, the area may seem quite familiar, even on a first visit, but it is soon evident that the natural colors really are as bright and deep as those in all the pictures. The valley is not a valley in the conventional sense, but rather a wide flat, sometimes desolate landscape, interrupted by the crumbling formations rising hundreds of feet into the air, the last remnants of the sandstone layers that once covered the entire region.


    Goulding
    The area is entirely within the Navajo Indian Reservation on the Utah/Arizona border; the state line passes through the most famous landmarks, which are concentrated around the border near the small Indian town of Goulding - this was established in 1923 as a trading post, and now has a comprehensive range of visitor services. A paved side road heads past the village to the northwest beneath Oljeto Mesa and has views of other less-visited parts of the valley, then another route (Piute Farms Road) continues all the way to the shores of the San Juan branch of Lake Powell.


    Approach
    There is only one main road through the valley, US 163, which links Kayenta, Arizona with US 191 in Utah. The stretch approaching the AZ/UT border from the north is the most famous image of the valley, and possibly of the whole Southwest - a long, straight, empty road leads across flat desert towards the 1,000 foot high stark red cliffs on the horizon, curving away just in front. The highway cuts through the mesas at Monument Pass, near which several dirt tracks leave both east and west and criss-cross the red, sandy landscape, offering a more close up appreciation of the rock formations.


    The Navajo Tribal Park
    Although much can be appreciated from the main road, a lot more of the landscape is hidden from view behind long straight cliffs (the Mitchell and Wetherill Mesas), east of the road on the Arizona side. This is contained within the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, reached along a short side road opposite the turn-off to Goulding.


    Valley Drive
    The view from the visitor center is spectacular enough, but most of the park can only be seen from the Valley Drive, a 17-mile dirt road which starts at the center and goes southeast amongst the towering cliffs and mesas, which includes the "Totem Pole", an oft-photographed spire of rock 300 feet high but only a few metres wide. As of October 2006, the road was well graded and easily navigable by car. Other options for touring the valley are the many Navajo guides and 4WD jeep rental outfits, which wait expectantly by the visitor center - typical prices are around $15 for a 3-hour trip. As well as eroded rocks, this area also has many ancient cave and cliff dwellings, natural arches and petroglyphs.


    Iconic Imagery
    The twin buttes of the Valley ("the Mittens"), the "Totem Pole" (although the Navajo did not actually build totem poles), and the Ear of the Wind arch, among other features, have developed iconic status. They have appeared in many television programs, commercials, and Hollywood movies, especially Westerns


    For more photographs and information:-
    Monument Valley- Wikipedia
    Monument Valley- Google Images


    Previous discussion:-
    Monument Valley

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 55 times, last by ethanedwards ().

  • Only The Opening Credits of "The Angel and The Badman" were Shot in Monument Valley, the rest of the Film was Shot in Sedona, Arizona. :) How do I know, I was There. :uhuh2: And this was Not a Ford Film, Duke was the Producer of the Film. :rolleyes:


    Rio Grande was Shot in Moab, Utah, and I was There Also. :D


    Bill :cowboy:

  • Thanks Bill,
    I knew you'd come in on this one.
    Of course I know 'Angel' was Duke's film,
    the inference, was that between them,
    they made those films there.


    In the case of Rio Grande, thanks for that information,
    the book John Wayne: American
    clearly states that it was made in Moab, Utah,
    but it also that makes
    The John Wayne Official Reference Book,
    incorrect!!
    I will change the post accordingly,
    as it clearly wasn't in around MV!

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

  • Hi Vera ,


    I agree, I always thought
    3 Godfathers, was shot in and around
    Death Valley, California,
    but once again I have included it as
    The Official John Wayne Reference Book,
    states that it was filmed there also.
    I thought perhaps they knew something
    that we didn't!!


    Maybe Bill can clarify this?

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

  • Hi,


    The film established Monument Valley, on the Arizona-Utah border, as an icon of the American West, although, of the passengers, only John Wayne actually trekked out to Utah. None of the principals made it past Californiaís San Fernando Valley.


    Monument Valley, an area of striking, flat-topped mesas and buttes, was a tough location in 1938, at the end of a 200-mile dirt road from Flagstaff, Arizona. The Navajo, already troubled by disease and unemployment, were employed to play Apaches – one of the many nations they were to play over the years. The Valley is not a National Park, as you might expect, but a Tribal Park still belonging to, and managed by, the Navajo nation.


    But the Valley is only a part of Stagecoach. The river crossing is the Kern River, near to Kernville, 40 miles east of Bakersfield, California. The old wagon cut at Newhall, on I-5 ‚ also called Fremont Pass ‚ is the entrance to the dry lake.


    Nearby Chatsworth and Calabasas also provided locations. The chase by Indians was staged at the Muroc Dry Lake salt flats near Victorville, California, recreated by stunt artist Yakima Canutt from the 1937 Monogram movie Riders of the Dawn, which was filmed at the same location.


    To soften the ground for filming, 20 acres of ground had to be dug up by tractor. The real journey of the movie, though, is from the Western Street at Republic Studios (the town of 'Tonto') to the Goldwyn Studios ('Lordsburg'), where the interiors were filmed.
    From
    The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England


  • Man, that stagecoach sure covered some ground.

  • I was just wondering if anyone saw the "DIRECTED BY JOHN FORD" special Tuesday morning on TCM. They went into a good bit of detail about how Ford was lured out to Monument Valley as Well as MOAB. It even went so far as to give the name of a man who owned a small trading post in MOAB and i wish i could remember it because the trading post is still there today and the room he is seen comming out of in Yellow Ribbon was simply built onto the expanded trading post. They showed it how it looks today and it is still the same. I would love to visit that trading post and see and actually stand on the same ground he once filemed on. Yeah i know that may sound silly to most but a hero never really dies they just seem to get bigger after they are gone. I recently toured DEI and it was a silent group of mostly 40+ year old men. You should have seen them when they got to RCR and actually saw the car he flipped and got out of the ambulance and got back in and finished the race in. All of us trying not to cry. I have to admit i would be the same way in Monument Valley or Moab. The first time i landed at John Wayne Airport i was with my 2Pa who i have told you before was often mistaken for The Duke when we would visit the west coast. Several years later i landed there after my 2Pa had died and it was all i could do to get to the cab without crying.

  • I was just wondering if anyone saw the "DIRECTED BY JOHN FORD" special Tuesday morning on TCM. They went into a good bit of detail about how Ford was lured out to Monument Valley as Well as MOAB. It even went so far as to give the name of a man who owned a small trading post in MOAB and i wish i could remember it because the trading post is still there today and the room he is seen coming out of in Yellow Ribbon was simply built onto the expanded trading post.


    Directed By John Ford (2006)
    Newly updated and re-edited version of the 1971 documentary chronicling the career of maverick director John Ford. Narrated by Orson Welles. Cast: Orson Welles Dir: Peter Bogdanovich C-95 mins, TV-14, CC


    I recorded it so I will watch it in full next week some time. And for others. looks like the TCM marathon ends tomorrow at 4:40 a.m. CDT. The last movie is Without Reservations.

  • Hey Stumpy, that's a sharp looking picture. Seems we like the same area. Here's my desktop picture. :teeth_smile:



    A beautiful place. I hope to visit there one day.

    Mark

    "I couldn't go to sleep at night if the director didn't call 'cut'. "



  • Apparently it's the exact same picture, only your's is from a greater distance. But in looking at the two, it's obvious the two mesas on the left are the same. Mine came from landscapes shown in Windows Photo Gallery - where is your's from, Mark?

    De gustibus non est disputandum



  • I knew mesa wasn't right but couldn't think of the right word offhand. BTW, Bill, there's supposed to be an "e" on the end of "butte".

    De gustibus non est disputandum