Page 7 - carey-bunse_habs_ca2712

HARRY CAREY RANCH
) (Clougherty Ranch)
HABS No. CA-2712 (Page 7)
)
)
In relatively short order, the film industry established a permanent presence in the Santa
Clarita Valley through two related developments: the creation of permanent "Western
town" film sets and the settling of W estem film actorson cattle ranches in the area. The
two developments occurred roughly contemporaneously and Western film actors
sometimes used their homes and ranches in their own films. Harry Carey, Sr. was one of
the first film actors to settle in the valley when he took over the homestead rights of a
previous settler in 1916. He and his family lived there most of the time through the
1920s and 1930s, and they operated a tourist attraction and film set there as well. The
Careys were soon followed by William S. Hart, who hired architect Arthur Kelly to
design a house in the Newhall area in which he and his sister lived after he retired from
filmmaking in 1925. Edmund "Hoot" Gibson also bought a ranch in the valley in 1930,
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where he built his home and a rodeo grounds.
Towards the end of the silent era, in the mid to late 1920s, various other individuals and
() groups began to build permanent (or semi-permanent) Western towns in the Newhall and
Saugus area, renting the sites to film producers. Tom Mix built "Mixville" in the late
1920s. Hoot Gibson took over a rodeo grounds near Saugus in the early 1930s, but sold
the property by 1934. In 1930, Ernie Hickson built the most ambitious of such projects:
the Rancho Placerita in Placerita Canyon near Newhall. When the landowner sold the
property, Hickson moved the set down to the junction of Placerita and Oak creeks and it
became known as the Monogram Ranch, after that film company that leased the site.
() Hopalong Cassidy, Gary Cooper, and John Wayne were among the dozens of actors who

worked on Hickson's set and the opening scene of the television show, Gunsmoke, was
filmed there. Gene Autry later purchased the property and re-named it "Melody Ranch."
The ranch burned in 1962, but it was essentially rebuilt in .1991 and continues to serve as
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a film set and the location for the annual Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival.
The Santa Clarita Valley of the 1920s and 1930s was, therefore, something of a center of

() W estem genre filmmaking. When Harry Carey settled at his ranch in the late 191 Os, the
relationship between Hollywood and the Santa Clarita Valley was just beginning to gel.
Unlike William S.Hart and some of the other film stars, Carey did not move to the area to
() retire, but he respected Hart's work and hosted him at Carey ranch several times. Carey
continued to perform in films for another twenty years after moving to the valley and his
r~•- selection of the valley as a residence preceded by several years the construction of the
first permanent Western town sets. As discussed below, Harry Carey would attempt to

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Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Patent Records, CALA 0031850, Patent issued July 16, 1925
to Henry Dewitt Carey, and CALA 0032149, Patent issued April 22, 1926 to Henry Dewitt Carey; Harry Carey, Jr.,
interview, January 26, 2001; Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, "William S. Hart Museum,"
(Santa Clarita Valley Printing House Craftsmen: 1996); Leonard Maltin, "Hoot Gibson," Leonard Ma/tin's Movie
Encyclopedia (Penguin Putnam: 1994), as quoted on us.imdb.com. Hart left his home. to Los Angeles County and it
has been preserved as the centerpiece of a historical park, called Hart Regional Park.
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· 1 Leon Worden, "Santa Clarita Valley in Pictures," www.scvhistory.com (1996-2000); Jerry Reynolds, "Tales of
the Valley," The Signal (August 31, 1991); Jerry Reynolds, "History of the Santa Clarita Valley," The Signal (April
28, 1985), 2; Viki Rudolph, Newhall Gazzette (Spring 1997); "The Time Ranger," The Signal (August 24, 1997);
Gary Wayne, "Melody Ranch," www.seeing-stars.com (2000).