__NOTOC__ Corriganville Movie Ranch was a working film studio and movie ranch for outdoor location shooting, as well as a

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

-themed tourist attraction. The ranch, owned by

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

and stuntman

Ray "Crash" Corrigan Ray "Crash" Corrigan (born Raymond Benitz; February 14, 1902 – August 10, 1976) was an American actor most famous for appearing in many B-Western movies (among these the Three Mesquiteers and Range Busters film series). He also was a st ...

, was located in the foothills of the

Santa Susana Mountains The Santa Susana Mountains are a transverse range of mountains in Southern California, north of the city of Los Angeles, in the United States. The range runs east-west, separating the San Fernando and Simi valleys on its south from the Santa C ...

in the

Santa Susana Pass The Santa Susana Pass, originally Simi Pass, is a low mountain pass in the Simi Hills of Southern California, connecting the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles neighborhood of Chatsworth, to the city of Simi Valley and eponymous valley. It h ...

area of

Simi Valley Simi Valley (; Chumash: ''Shimiyi'') is a city in the valley of the same name in the southeast region of Ventura County, California, United States. Simi Valley is from Downtown Los Angeles, making it part of the Greater Los Angeles Area. The ...

in eastern

Ventura County, California Ventura County () is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises the Oxn ...

. It was destroyed by wildfires in 1976 and 1979. The site is currently a public park in the City of Simi Valley, called Corriganville Park, and operated by Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District. Actors in a death scene at Corriganville Movie Ranch, California, 1963

Actors in a death scene at Corriganville Movie Ranch, California, 1963

Movies

Built on land purchased by Corrigan in 1937, the ranch provided scenery as well as man-made structures and sets, and served as the background scenery for movies and television programs such as '' Fort Apache'', '' Buffalo Bill in Tomahawk Territory'', ''

The Robe ''The Robe'' is a 1942 historical novel about the Crucifixion of Jesus, written by Lloyd C. Douglas. The book was one of the best-selling titles of the 1940s. It entered the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list in October 1942, four weeks later ...

'', ''

The Lone Ranger The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture. He first appeared in 1933 in ...

'', ''

The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin ''The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin'' is an American children's television series in the Western genre that aired from October 1954 to May 1959 on the ABC television network. In all, 164 episodes aired. The show starred Lee Aaker as Rusty, a boy o ...

'', ''

Sky King ''Sky King'' was an American radio and television series. Its lead character was Arizona rancher and aircraft pilot Schuyler "Sky" King. The series had strong Western elements. King usually captured criminals and spies and found lost hikers, ...

'', ''

Circus Boy ''Circus Boy'' was an American adventure family western that aired in prime time on NBC, and then on ABC, from 1956 to 1957. It was then rerun by NBC on Saturday mornings, from 1958 to 1960. Summary Set in the late 1890s, the title of the ser ...

'', and '' Star Trek''. The visual environment was that of a picturesque

California oak woodland California oak woodland is a plant community found throughout the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion of California in the United States and northwestern Baja California in Mexico. Oak woodland is widespread at lower elevations in coastal ...

. The ranch provided terrain such as lakes, mountains, caves, rock outcroppings and overhangs, and large boulders. The small man-made lake featured a cliff waterfall, as well as an underwater bunker with thick-glassed windows that would allow underwater scenes to be shot, while keeping the camera and crew dry. Other sets included Silvertown, a western street with saloon, hotel, jail, livery stable, corral, blacksmith, shops, and a bank. There was also an outlaw shack and a church that doubled as a schoolhouse. Some of these structures had small living quarters while others had showers and restrooms for the cast and crew. It's unclear if any had interior sets that were used onscreen, although there was a soundstage in the hotel building where interior sets may have been constructed for the movie companies' use (jail cell, bunkhouse, etc.). Many of the interior shots may have been made at various studios around Hollywood—Republic Studios, Monogram Studios, etc. in order to match the outdoor scenes shot at Corriganville. Corrigan's own home on the property was used for ranch-house exterior shots. His house was one of the first structures erected at the ranch in 1938-1939. A non-Western set built in 1946 for

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...

' '' Vendetta'' (released in 1950) was called Vendetta Village. It was later renamed the Corsican Village. A Cavalry fort built for John Ford's 1948 film '' Fort Apache'' was subsequently rented to many other film productions by Corrigan. Cowboy stars who filmed there include: Gene Autry,

Roy Rogers Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998) was an American singer, actor, and television host. Following early work under his given name, first as co-founder of the Sons of the Pioneers and then acting, the rebra ...

Buster Crabbe Clarence Linden Crabbe II (; February 7, 1908 – April 23, 1983), known professionally as Buster Crabbe, was an American two-time Olympic swimmer and film and television actor. He won the 1932 Olympic gold medal for 400-meter freestyle swimmi ...

, John Wayne, Randolph Scott,

Smiley Burnette Lester Alvin Burnett (March 18, 1911 – February 16, 1967), better known as Smiley Burnette, was an American country music performer and a comedic actor in Western films and on radio and TV, playing sidekick to Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, a ...

Clayton Moore Clayton Moore (born Jack Carlton Moore, September 14, 1914 – December 28, 1999) was an American actor best known for playing the fictional western character the Lone Ranger from 1949 to 1952 and 1953 to 1957 on the television series of the sa ...

Jay Silverheels Jay Silverheels (born Harold Jay Smith; May 26, 1912 – March 5, 1980) was an Indigenous Canadian actor and athlete. He was well known for his role as Tonto, the Native American companion of the Lone Ranger in the American Western television s ...

Charles Starrett Charles Robert Starrett (March 28, 1903 – March 22, 1986) was an American actor, best known for his starring role in the ''Durango Kid'' westerns. Starrett still holds the record for starring in the longest series of theatrical features: ...

, Ken Maynard,

Kermit Maynard Kermit Maynard (September 20, 1897 – January 16, 1971) was an American actor and stuntman. Early years Born in Vevay, Indiana, he was the son of Mr. and Mrs. William Maynard and a lookalike younger brother of actor Ken Maynard; they were f ...

Hoot Gibson Edmund Richard "Hoot" Gibson (August 6, 1892 – August 23, 1962) was an American rodeo champion, film actor, film director, and producer. While acting and stunt work began as a sideline to Gibson's focus on rodeo, he successfully transitioned ...

, Bob Steele,

Tex Ritter Woodward Maurice Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974) was a pioneer of American country music, a popular singer and actor from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter acting family (son John, grandsons Jason and ...

, Robert Taylor and of course Crash Corrigan himself. Scenes from Season 1, Episode 3 of the HBO series

Westworld ''Westworld'' is an American science fiction-thriller media franchise that began with the 1973 film ''Westworld'', written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populate ...

were filmed at Corriganville Park in 2016. Estimates of the number of movies and television shows filmed there range from the hundreds to the thousands.

Tourism

The ranch was open to the public on weekends and holidays from 1949 to 1965. For an admission price of one dollar, visitors could experience a variety of stuntman shows, movie and TV actors (often Crash himself) signing autographs and posing for pictures, western street movie sets ("Silvertown"), frontier Army fort ("Fort Apache"), and Mexican village, many made up of real working buildings and not just set fronts as is common on many studio backlots. Other weekend attractions included live western music, Indian crafts, stagecoach rides, pony rides, and boating on the ranch's artificial lake.

Transition

In 1965 Ray Corrigan sold the property, which was acquired by comedian and property speculator

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in Bob Hope filmography, more than 70 short and ...

. A housing subdivision called Hopetown was developed and built on a parcel near the park entrance in the mid 1990s. In the late 1960s and early 1970s part of the site was used for motorcycle racing. In 1970 the ranch was swept by fire. One of the last movies filmed there was '' Vigilante Force'' (1976). In 1979 another fire destroyed virtually all of the remaining structures. In 1988, of land comprising the principal working areas of the original Corriganville Ranch were purchased by the City of Simi Valley for use as a regional park.

Regional park

Now named Corriganville Park, the site of Corriganville Movie Ranch is a public park operated by Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District. The park has various concrete and brick foundations, the remains of movie and theme park buildings. Several signs present photographs and descriptions of filming locations. Hiking trails provide views from dramatic rock formations that made the park a popular filming location from the 1930s to 1960s. The park and the entire Santa Susana Pass area has many sites and vistas seen in movies and especially 1950s television westerns. The park's eastern area is part of the

wildlife corridor A wildlife corridor, habitat corridor, or green corridor is an area of habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities or structures (such as roads, development, or logging). This allows an exchange of individuals between ...

connecting the

Simi Hills The Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range of the Transverse Ranges in eastern Ventura County and western Los Angeles County, of southern California, United States. Geography The Simi Hills are aligned east-west and run for , and average aro ...

(and the

Santa Monica Mountains The Santa Monica Mountains is a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. Because of its proximity to densely populated regions, it is one of the most visited natural areas in ...

) with the

(and

Tehachapi Mountains The Tehachapi Mountains (; Kawaiisu: ''Tihachipia'', meaning "hard climb") are a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges system of California in the Western United States. The range extends for approximately in southern Kern County and northwe ...

and San Gabriel Mountains). Hiking trails provide exploration and views.

Rocky Peak Rocky Peak, located in Rocky Peak Park, is the fourth-highest point in the Santa Susana Mountains, and overlooks the San Fernando Valley and Chatsworth, the Simi Hills, and the Simi Valley in Southern California. The peak, which is in elevatio ...

Park is adjacent to the east. Several historic photos and pieces of memorabilia from Corriganville are on display at the nearby Santa Susana Depot.

References

Bibliography

Schneider, Jerry L. ''Corriganville Movie Ranch'' Lulu.com, 01/08/2007

External links

Corriganville movies photos websiteYouTube: Corriganville as seen in 1956 home movieYouTube: Corriganville's motorcycle racing era videoRancho Simi Recreation and Park District - Corriganville official website
{{Defunct Amusement Parks in California Movie ranches Culture of Simi Valley, California History of Simi Valley, California Parks in Ventura County, California Defunct amusement parks in California Open-air museums in California Santa Susana Mountains

Movies

Tourism

Transition

Regional park

See also

References

Bibliography

External links