Paul Colt's Blog
November 30, 2025
Cowboys Take Pride in Their Work
Do your best. Pretty simple. We all have different skills and abilities. Nobody does everything equally well; but for everything we do, each of us has a best. You know when you do your best; and you know when you don’t. Where do our young people learn the value of doing their best? These days the notion of doing your best is challenged with tools like artificial intelligence. What is the definition of academic excellence when that book report was written by AI? Where is personal best in that? Where is pride and satisfaction?
Where do our young learn to strive for excellence? Excellence can be competitive. Popular culture has a problem with competition. We have organized sports for kids that don’t keep score. We have contests where everyone wins a prize, so no one feels bad. What kind of lesson does that teach? Why do your best, every outcome is the same? There is value in winning and learning to lose. It builds character. That’s how life is played. We keep score.
It isn’t just about winning and losing. It’s about how hard you try. We all need to learn the value of our personal best. We need to learn to take pride in it. We don’t all achieve at the same level; but we are all capable of a personal best if we try. Popular culture doesn’t teach young people the value of striving for their personal best. Kids are taught they deserve a prize because everyone gets one. Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The cowboy code helps us find it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth
2. A Cowboy’s Word is a Bond
3. Cowboys Play by the Rules
4. Cowboys Respect Authority
5. Cowboy Actions Speak Louder Than Words
6. Cowboys Take Pride in Their Work
Next Week: Cowboys Ride for the Brand
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
Where do our young learn to strive for excellence? Excellence can be competitive. Popular culture has a problem with competition. We have organized sports for kids that don’t keep score. We have contests where everyone wins a prize, so no one feels bad. What kind of lesson does that teach? Why do your best, every outcome is the same? There is value in winning and learning to lose. It builds character. That’s how life is played. We keep score.
It isn’t just about winning and losing. It’s about how hard you try. We all need to learn the value of our personal best. We need to learn to take pride in it. We don’t all achieve at the same level; but we are all capable of a personal best if we try. Popular culture doesn’t teach young people the value of striving for their personal best. Kids are taught they deserve a prize because everyone gets one. Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The cowboy code helps us find it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth
2. A Cowboy’s Word is a Bond
3. Cowboys Play by the Rules
4. Cowboys Respect Authority
5. Cowboy Actions Speak Louder Than Words
6. Cowboys Take Pride in Their Work
Next Week: Cowboys Ride for the Brand
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
November 23, 2025
Cowboy Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Quietly doing what’s needed is counter-cultural in our See -me Selfie society. OK you’re reading this on social media. Point taken. Guilty as charged. But we are still left with the question: What’s cool about doing what you are supposed to do if nobody notices?
People do notice what we do. It may not be under the bright light of media celebrity, but the people around you know what you do. In fact your actions say more about you than anything you could put into words. Your life is a body of work. It accumulates in something we call reputation. It’s what you are known for. It’s who you are as a person. It’s how you will be remembered; and in life’s final reckoning, it’s the only thing you get to take with you.
Throughout these posts we pose the question: Where do young people go to learn these values? Often, we are left to suggest that it is up to us to make a little of the cowboy code rub off on young folks by living the code ourselves. We set an example by what we do. We may not do it consciously, but maybe we should. Our actions do speak louder than words.
Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The cowboy code helps us show it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth
2. A Cowboy’s Word is a Bond
3. Cowboys Play by the Rules
4. Cowboys Respect Authority
5. Cowboy Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Next Week: Cowboys Take Pride in Their Work
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
People do notice what we do. It may not be under the bright light of media celebrity, but the people around you know what you do. In fact your actions say more about you than anything you could put into words. Your life is a body of work. It accumulates in something we call reputation. It’s what you are known for. It’s who you are as a person. It’s how you will be remembered; and in life’s final reckoning, it’s the only thing you get to take with you.
Throughout these posts we pose the question: Where do young people go to learn these values? Often, we are left to suggest that it is up to us to make a little of the cowboy code rub off on young folks by living the code ourselves. We set an example by what we do. We may not do it consciously, but maybe we should. Our actions do speak louder than words.
Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The cowboy code helps us show it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth
2. A Cowboy’s Word is a Bond
3. Cowboys Play by the Rules
4. Cowboys Respect Authority
5. Cowboy Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Next Week: Cowboys Take Pride in Their Work
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
November 16, 2025
Cowboys Respect Authority
Respect for authority seems simple enough. Organized human activities generally place someone in charge. As I remember learning this as a kid, authority figures were easy to identify. Parents, teachers, pastors, scout leaders, coaches, the police, we experienced them all. They all set out expectations for us to follow. We were expected to do as we were told, because people in authority were deserving of respect and obedience. Then we grew up.
Things seem more complicated today. Maybe it’s because we’re older and see things differently than we did as youngsters; or maybe some things have changed. In this day and age it can be difficult to respect authority; either because we don’t agree with what that authority expects of us; or because the person in authority is somehow less deserving of respect. We see individuals who stand for authority all around us. Some are deserving of respect. Others are not. How do we teach our young folks to tell the difference? Maybe we should start with those first three values in the Cowboy code. Authority figures who tell the truth, mean what they say, and play by the rules are deserving of respect.
Once again, we ask who are the role models who help us advance these values? That starts with parents; but altogether too many of our young people find themselves in challenging family situations. That leaves it to all of us to set an example. Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The cowboy code helps us show it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth
2. A Cowboy’s Word is a Bond
3. Cowboys Play by the Rules
4. Cowboys Respect Authority
Next Week: Cowboy Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
Things seem more complicated today. Maybe it’s because we’re older and see things differently than we did as youngsters; or maybe some things have changed. In this day and age it can be difficult to respect authority; either because we don’t agree with what that authority expects of us; or because the person in authority is somehow less deserving of respect. We see individuals who stand for authority all around us. Some are deserving of respect. Others are not. How do we teach our young folks to tell the difference? Maybe we should start with those first three values in the Cowboy code. Authority figures who tell the truth, mean what they say, and play by the rules are deserving of respect.
Once again, we ask who are the role models who help us advance these values? That starts with parents; but altogether too many of our young people find themselves in challenging family situations. That leaves it to all of us to set an example. Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The cowboy code helps us show it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth
2. A Cowboy’s Word is a Bond
3. Cowboys Play by the Rules
4. Cowboys Respect Authority
Next Week: Cowboy Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
November 9, 2025
Cowboys Play by the Rules
Media and popular culture bombard us with examples of people looking out for number one, trying to get an edge. Behaviors run the gamut from athletes using performance enhancing drugs, to inside-traders cheating the market on Wall Street, to fraudulent marketing scams and cheating on exams. Today young folks face a new challenge. An invitation to cut corners, posing as artificial intelligence (AI). “Who needs to read the book for that book report when AI will summarize it for you? Let’s play video games.” How is that playing by the rules? How is that learning?
Those who engage in these behaviors excuse them in the misguided belief: The end somehow justifies the means, or “everyone is doing it.” The idea a person is responsible for self-discipline in abiding by rules seems idealistic and naive. Rules are made to be broken. Fair play is for losers. Nice guys finish last. Once again, we find the need to ask; where do our young people learn the value of playing by the rules? Their heroes tend to be those society holds up to celebrity. Who are the heroes they are given to admire as persons of integrity? Maybe we should make sure some cowboy code rubs off on them by helping them find heroes whose integrity they can admire. Maybe it’s a teacher. Maybe a coach, or a first responder. Maybe it’s you. Integrity is its own reward, if you practice it.
The first three values in my cowboy code describe a person of integrity. You can find people of integrity in our culture today; but you have to look for them. We don’t ordinarily celebrate integrity. Maybe we should. Reward something and you get more of it. Ignore it …
Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The cowboy code helps us show it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth
2. A Cowboy’s Word is a Bond
3. Cowboys Play by the Rules
Next Week: Cowboys Respect Authority
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
Those who engage in these behaviors excuse them in the misguided belief: The end somehow justifies the means, or “everyone is doing it.” The idea a person is responsible for self-discipline in abiding by rules seems idealistic and naive. Rules are made to be broken. Fair play is for losers. Nice guys finish last. Once again, we find the need to ask; where do our young people learn the value of playing by the rules? Their heroes tend to be those society holds up to celebrity. Who are the heroes they are given to admire as persons of integrity? Maybe we should make sure some cowboy code rubs off on them by helping them find heroes whose integrity they can admire. Maybe it’s a teacher. Maybe a coach, or a first responder. Maybe it’s you. Integrity is its own reward, if you practice it.
The first three values in my cowboy code describe a person of integrity. You can find people of integrity in our culture today; but you have to look for them. We don’t ordinarily celebrate integrity. Maybe we should. Reward something and you get more of it. Ignore it …
Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The cowboy code helps us show it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth
2. A Cowboy’s Word is a Bond
3. Cowboys Play by the Rules
Next Week: Cowboys Respect Authority
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
November 2, 2025
A Cowboy's Word is a Bond
A Cowboy’s word is a bond. Think about that in the context of today’s culture. How often do we look up to our idols, icons and leaders to find they say one thing and do another? It is yet another form of cultural deceit. ‘I tell you what I think I should; or what I think you want to hear’; but that doesn’t necessarily translate into what I do. Until I get caught. If I get caught, I apologize, cry, plead forgiveness, I made a mistake. The mistake of course is getting caught.
We see this sort of behavior time and again from celebrities, politicians, athletes and all manner of media figures. What are young people learning from idols, icons and leaders who engage in such behavior? Words don’t matter? Deceit and hypocrisy are acceptable as long as you get away with it? Where are the heroes who say what they mean and mean what they say? Where do we find stand-up role models who look you in the eye, shake your hand and give you a word you can depend on? Imagine a world with a little more of that. We’d all be better off . . . well maybe not trial lawyers.
Instinctively we still admire that brand of heroism we call trustworthiness when we encounter it. We just don’t encounter it as often as we once did. Neither do our young people. Where do they learn the value of making their word matter? Maybe we should let a bit of the cowboy code rub off on them by making our word a bond.
Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The cowboy code helps us show it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth
2. A Cowboy’s Word is a Bond
Next Week: Cowboys Play by the Rules
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
We see this sort of behavior time and again from celebrities, politicians, athletes and all manner of media figures. What are young people learning from idols, icons and leaders who engage in such behavior? Words don’t matter? Deceit and hypocrisy are acceptable as long as you get away with it? Where are the heroes who say what they mean and mean what they say? Where do we find stand-up role models who look you in the eye, shake your hand and give you a word you can depend on? Imagine a world with a little more of that. We’d all be better off . . . well maybe not trial lawyers.
Instinctively we still admire that brand of heroism we call trustworthiness when we encounter it. We just don’t encounter it as often as we once did. Neither do our young people. Where do they learn the value of making their word matter? Maybe we should let a bit of the cowboy code rub off on them by making our word a bond.
Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The cowboy code helps us show it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth
2. A Cowboy’s Word is a Bond
Next Week: Cowboys Play by the Rules
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
October 26, 2025
Cowboys Tell the Truth
Truth is basic to honesty, yet we live in a culture where truth is often in short supply. We have institutionalized deceit in our culture. From those in positions of authority, influence, or leadership across institutions at every level of society to mass media and social media, lying is an all too common form of expression. If there is no stigma attached to lying what does that say about the value of honesty in our society? To an impressionable observer like a young person, it appears honesty is for suckers.
How are young people to learn the value of honesty when pop-culture and political correctness condone parsing, shading, spinning, twisting or ignoring truth as an accepted form of discourse? It starts with parents who expect kids to tell the truth and have the courage to expose deceit wherever they find it. Young people navigating a world influenced by AI, need critical thinking to value truth and recognize it when they see it. Where do they gain that skill? School? Not on the curriculum.
It helps if kids have heroes and role models who reinforce the value of honesty. For many of us who grew up in the fifties and sixties our heroes were cowboys. They practiced a code of conduct that became quintessentially American. We revered and respected heroes who told the truth and stood for honorable values. Who are the heroes our young people look up to today? Rock stars? Super star athletes? Cartoon characters? Video game actors? What code of conduct do these heroes stand for? Chances are when you catalog a kid’s heroes today, you won’t find a cowboy among them. Too bad. Values like telling the truth and honesty are timeless.
Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The cowboy code helps us find it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth
Next Week: A Cowboy’s Word is a Bond
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
How are young people to learn the value of honesty when pop-culture and political correctness condone parsing, shading, spinning, twisting or ignoring truth as an accepted form of discourse? It starts with parents who expect kids to tell the truth and have the courage to expose deceit wherever they find it. Young people navigating a world influenced by AI, need critical thinking to value truth and recognize it when they see it. Where do they gain that skill? School? Not on the curriculum.
It helps if kids have heroes and role models who reinforce the value of honesty. For many of us who grew up in the fifties and sixties our heroes were cowboys. They practiced a code of conduct that became quintessentially American. We revered and respected heroes who told the truth and stood for honorable values. Who are the heroes our young people look up to today? Rock stars? Super star athletes? Cartoon characters? Video game actors? What code of conduct do these heroes stand for? Chances are when you catalog a kid’s heroes today, you won’t find a cowboy among them. Too bad. Values like telling the truth and honesty are timeless.
Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The cowboy code helps us find it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth
Next Week: A Cowboy’s Word is a Bond
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
October 19, 2025
Quo Vadis?
This week we come to movie ranches whose stories don’t provide enough history to make a meaningful post, which means we are at the end of this series. The question, what comes next? We need direction. I’m a little stumped so I’d like to hear from you. Any ideas on where we might go next? Let me know. Research has the final say on what works.
My best recollection is we have been doing these weekly posts for something like fifteen years. In all I recall repeating two series. The Cowboy Code, because it was wildly popular – 60K views both times; and Patent Medicine because the humor was fun. I took a look back at the Cowboy Code series, because it is timeless. As relevant today as it was ten years ago when we last ran it. So, lets freshen it up for a revisit while we find a way forward.
I first looked into the Cowboy Code, or Code of the West as some call it, more than a decade ago for a talk I was invited to give to a group of at-risk middle school kids learning life lessons through equine skills. Research discovered there are many versions of ten things that make up a cowboy way of doing things. I combined the best of eight lists to come up with the version of ten we’ll test against today’s digital culture.
The cowboy way of doing things offers all of us life lessons we can use to navigate the cultural turbulence we find ourselves in today. You don’t have to be a cowboy to benefit from the cowboy code. Cowboys aren’t defined by boots and hats, or horses and cattle. The things that make a cowboy come from the heart. Those who learn the code and live it find there’s a little cowboy in all of us. With that in mind let’s use this post series to examine values that make up a cowboy way of doing things. If you’ve got a young person, you’d like to share these musings with, feel free. They don’t have to be at-risk kids to benefit from positive life lessons.
Next Week: Cowboys Tell the Truth
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
My best recollection is we have been doing these weekly posts for something like fifteen years. In all I recall repeating two series. The Cowboy Code, because it was wildly popular – 60K views both times; and Patent Medicine because the humor was fun. I took a look back at the Cowboy Code series, because it is timeless. As relevant today as it was ten years ago when we last ran it. So, lets freshen it up for a revisit while we find a way forward.
I first looked into the Cowboy Code, or Code of the West as some call it, more than a decade ago for a talk I was invited to give to a group of at-risk middle school kids learning life lessons through equine skills. Research discovered there are many versions of ten things that make up a cowboy way of doing things. I combined the best of eight lists to come up with the version of ten we’ll test against today’s digital culture.
The cowboy way of doing things offers all of us life lessons we can use to navigate the cultural turbulence we find ourselves in today. You don’t have to be a cowboy to benefit from the cowboy code. Cowboys aren’t defined by boots and hats, or horses and cattle. The things that make a cowboy come from the heart. Those who learn the code and live it find there’s a little cowboy in all of us. With that in mind let’s use this post series to examine values that make up a cowboy way of doing things. If you’ve got a young person, you’d like to share these musings with, feel free. They don’t have to be at-risk kids to benefit from positive life lessons.
Next Week: Cowboys Tell the Truth
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
October 12, 2025
Paramount Movie Ranch
Our Paramount Ranch story begins with RKO Pictures 89 acre Encino Ranch developed in 1931 for production of the epic film Cimarron. The film was a huge success collecting Academy Award recognition for Best Picture and Best Writing, neither of which have anything to do with the ranch. We mention them because Best Picture is a big deal, and your scribe appreciates writing recognition. Ranch recognition came in courtesy of the award for Art Direction. Creative design of authentic sets including a western town. A town to take on star quality of its own in due course.
Encino Ranch set building didn’t stop at a western town. RKO built sets on the site including cityscapes of New York, English Row houses, slums, medieval Paris, and a Russian village. Other sets included a Yukon mining camp, Mexican outpost, and Saharan fort which brings us back to the western town. In 1954 RKO sold Encino Ranch for real estate development – think urban sprawl. Paramount bought the western town along with a few of its neighbors and moved them to Paramount Studios Movie Ranch.
Paramount established its movie ranch in 1927 on a 2,700 acre site on Medea Creek in the Santa Monica Mountains. There the Old West Town posed as Tombstone, Dodge City, and a Tom Sawyer Mississippi River town when it wasn’t hosting TV Westerns like Gunsmoke and The Cisco Kid. Other sets gave us a Welch mining village, add a little make-up and you have Bernadette’s French village. In fact those make-up tricks took the western town to thirteenth century China no less.
In 1980 The National Parks Service took over Paramount Ranch Park preserving the film sets as park features. Some filming continued at the park under NPS management including 2015’s Bone Tomahawk for any who remember our review of that ‘western’ adventure in cannibalism. I’d rather not. Fire destroyed most of the film sets in 2018.
Next Week: Wm S. Hart and Walt Disney and More
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
Encino Ranch set building didn’t stop at a western town. RKO built sets on the site including cityscapes of New York, English Row houses, slums, medieval Paris, and a Russian village. Other sets included a Yukon mining camp, Mexican outpost, and Saharan fort which brings us back to the western town. In 1954 RKO sold Encino Ranch for real estate development – think urban sprawl. Paramount bought the western town along with a few of its neighbors and moved them to Paramount Studios Movie Ranch.
Paramount established its movie ranch in 1927 on a 2,700 acre site on Medea Creek in the Santa Monica Mountains. There the Old West Town posed as Tombstone, Dodge City, and a Tom Sawyer Mississippi River town when it wasn’t hosting TV Westerns like Gunsmoke and The Cisco Kid. Other sets gave us a Welch mining village, add a little make-up and you have Bernadette’s French village. In fact those make-up tricks took the western town to thirteenth century China no less.
In 1980 The National Parks Service took over Paramount Ranch Park preserving the film sets as park features. Some filming continued at the park under NPS management including 2015’s Bone Tomahawk for any who remember our review of that ‘western’ adventure in cannibalism. I’d rather not. Fire destroyed most of the film sets in 2018.
Next Week: Wm S. Hart and Walt Disney and More
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
October 5, 2025
Melody Ranch
Western filming went on location in Placerita Canyon as early as 1926, featuring stars like Tom Mix. In 1931 Monogram pictures leased a parcel of land there on which to construct a western town, that became known as Monogram Ranch. The lease passed to Republic Pictures following the 1935 merger of Republic and Monogram Studios. The lease expired the following year. In 1937 the town set was moved a couple miles north to Russell Hickson’s 110 acre Placeritos Ranch, ever thereafter to be known as Monogram Ranch.
Gene Autry purchased the Monogram Ranch property in 1953, renaming it Melody Ranch after his successful 1940 film. In 1962 a brush fire destroyed most of the movie sets in addition to environmentally damaging the ranch’s visual appeal for filmmaking. Interesting how these movie ranches catch fire. Following the fire, Autry sold 98 of the 110 acres.
Gene retained 12 Melody Ranch acres for a reason. “Champion,” his wonder horse costar retired there. Turned out to pleasant pasture Champion lived out his leisure years in luxury until 1990. Gene sold those last Melody Ranch acres once his Champion no longer needed them. If you’ve ever loved a horse, there’s a tribute fit to warm your heart.
The buyers developed the site as an on location movie set known as Melody Ranch Studios, with western town, sound stages, and backlot support facilities. Still an active movie ranch, scenes from Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained were filmed there in 2012. The ranch has a museum, with the property open to the public each spring for the annual Cowboy Poetry & Western Music Festival.
Next Week: Paramount Movie Ranch
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
Gene Autry purchased the Monogram Ranch property in 1953, renaming it Melody Ranch after his successful 1940 film. In 1962 a brush fire destroyed most of the movie sets in addition to environmentally damaging the ranch’s visual appeal for filmmaking. Interesting how these movie ranches catch fire. Following the fire, Autry sold 98 of the 110 acres.
Gene retained 12 Melody Ranch acres for a reason. “Champion,” his wonder horse costar retired there. Turned out to pleasant pasture Champion lived out his leisure years in luxury until 1990. Gene sold those last Melody Ranch acres once his Champion no longer needed them. If you’ve ever loved a horse, there’s a tribute fit to warm your heart.
The buyers developed the site as an on location movie set known as Melody Ranch Studios, with western town, sound stages, and backlot support facilities. Still an active movie ranch, scenes from Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained were filmed there in 2012. The ranch has a museum, with the property open to the public each spring for the annual Cowboy Poetry & Western Music Festival.
Next Week: Paramount Movie Ranch
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
September 28, 2025
Corriganville Movie Ranch
Ray “Crash” Corrigan was a B Western movie star out of Republic and Monogram studio stables, best known for his portrayal of Tucson Smith in The Three Mesquiteers series. Ray picked up his “Crash” nickname courtesy of head-first football tackles before concussion protocol was invented. That may explain what happened in 1937. He was on a hunting trip with Clark Gable when he got the idea that became Corriganville Movie Ranch.
He found his location on two thousand acres in the California Simi Valley Santa Susana Mountain foothills. Corrigan purchased the site for $11,300 and change. Not a bad land grab by California real estate standards. Modeled after the successful Iverson Movie Ranch, Corriganville provided feature rich terrain with rock strewn trails, hills, caves, and lakes. The ranch provided producers permanent buildings allowing cast, crew, and equipment to stay on location. Film sets included a ranch layout, outlaw hide-outs, cavalry fort, and western town complete with saloon, jail, and hotel.
Corriganville attracted film and TV production crews for the next twenty-seven years including John Ford’s classic Fort Apache with John Wayne, The Lone Ranger starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels, The Cisco Kid with Duncan Ronaldo, The Adventures of Kit Carson, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, and Have Gun Will Travel. Other notable stars who filmed at Corriganville include Buster Crabbe, Ken Maynard, Bob Steele, Tex Ritter, Hoot Gibson, Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, and Roy Rogers. Oh, and some guy named Ray Corrigan.
In addition to attracting film and TV bookings, Ray opened the Ranch as a weekend amusement park, attracting as many as 20,000 visitors in a weekend. Attractions included tours of the sets, star appearances, stunt demonstrations, live music, stagecoach and pony rides. Could not confirm the rumor Walt Disney got his idea from a weekend at Corriganville. Ray sold the property to Bob Hope in 1966 for a project, called Hopetown at a price somewhat north of $11,000.
Next Week: Melody Ranch
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
He found his location on two thousand acres in the California Simi Valley Santa Susana Mountain foothills. Corrigan purchased the site for $11,300 and change. Not a bad land grab by California real estate standards. Modeled after the successful Iverson Movie Ranch, Corriganville provided feature rich terrain with rock strewn trails, hills, caves, and lakes. The ranch provided producers permanent buildings allowing cast, crew, and equipment to stay on location. Film sets included a ranch layout, outlaw hide-outs, cavalry fort, and western town complete with saloon, jail, and hotel.
Corriganville attracted film and TV production crews for the next twenty-seven years including John Ford’s classic Fort Apache with John Wayne, The Lone Ranger starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels, The Cisco Kid with Duncan Ronaldo, The Adventures of Kit Carson, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, and Have Gun Will Travel. Other notable stars who filmed at Corriganville include Buster Crabbe, Ken Maynard, Bob Steele, Tex Ritter, Hoot Gibson, Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, and Roy Rogers. Oh, and some guy named Ray Corrigan.
In addition to attracting film and TV bookings, Ray opened the Ranch as a weekend amusement park, attracting as many as 20,000 visitors in a weekend. Attractions included tours of the sets, star appearances, stunt demonstrations, live music, stagecoach and pony rides. Could not confirm the rumor Walt Disney got his idea from a weekend at Corriganville. Ray sold the property to Bob Hope in 1966 for a project, called Hopetown at a price somewhat north of $11,000.
Next Week: Melody Ranch
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
