Cowboys

On the way back from Monument Valley, we stopped at the Goulding's Trading Post.  The Gouldings were white folks who fell in love with the Navajo nation in the 1920s and just decided to live there.  They set up a trading post where the Navajo could sell their stuff and get a fair price.  At the end of the 1930s, when the depression had set in, the story goes that the Gouldings spent their last sixty dollars on a trip to Hollywood to meet with director John Ford and convince him to come over and film his moving  pictures in Monument Valley.  They brought pictures to him and he was so impressed that he brought his cast and crew right over.  The first film ever made in Monument Valley, "Stagecoach," made John Wayne a star and brought moviemakers into the area like crazy.  The movies that have been filmed are too numerous to mention here, but my favorites include The Searchers, Thelma and Louise and Forrest Gump.   I love The Searchers the best, but maybe because it is so creepy and confusing, the Goulding's people really play up Stagecoach and also She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.  

The Original Stagecoach

Howdy, Pilgrim!

The best thing about all these movies was that all the Navajo extras were paid really well, especially for the Depression times.  I read one report that says they were paid between 5 and 15 dollars per day, even in 1939.  So like Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, which perpetuated some stereotypes of Indians, Hollywood westerns were a source of a really good income for the people on the reservation.

Our next stop was this cheezy movie museum in Kanab, allegedly known as "Little Hollywood."  We were told that scores of directors had come to Kanab to film TV and Movies such as "Bonanza," "The Big Valley," "Gunsmoke," etc.  When we arrived, we found some run down sets, the most famous of which was from The Outlaw Josey Wales.  Other than that, we were left with a bunch of sets to movies I had never heard of, like Disney's One Little Indian.  

Is this it?  The Outlaw Josey Wales' barn or something?

Oh, and we also saw Kenny Loggins' set for a video he had shot somewhere around here.  This was pretty ironic since I had just been scoffing at Kenny Loggins fans as we had been driving over the dam across Lake Powell, talking about "smooth jazz" and all, and then there was his set!

We are now at a working bison/buffalo ranch just outside of Zion National Park.  I know everyone told us to hike up to Angels Landing today, but we decided to take it easy, sit on the rustic log porch swing, and watch the bison, and the one steer who thinks he is part of the herd.  This is the last weekend of March, and there are actually traffic alerts in the park, because the shuttle doesn't start running until tomorrow, and so people are driving up and down in hordes.  The rangers are actually turning people away.  Is this is lame excuse?  Should we be up there?  We are trying to rest up after all the excitement, in preparation for our trip to Vegas tomorrow!