Santa Susana Mountain Park Association
Protecting and Preserving the Historic Chatsworth Hills Area
AREA NEWS
Fantasyland is a primer on the Iverson Movie Ranch
Photographs, movie stills, lobby cards, and screenshots capture the Iverson Ranch as it looks today and as it appeared during half a century of movie-making between 1912 and the late 1960s.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb 05, 2010 – In the San Fernando Valley's backyard, there remains a fantasyland that was forever made famous by Hollywood…
A place where Superman once captured the evil Luthor in his hidden Stoney Point cave, where Batman wrestled a criminal on top of a speeding locomotive, where Tarzan the Ape Man found an ancient elephant graveyard, and where John Wayne's fighting Seabees pushed a Japanese tank off the same cliff that Nyoka used to escape Vultura’s killer ape.
The place is Boulder Pass. It was the jungles of India and Africa, the sands of the Sahara, the Khyber Pass between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the plains of Montana, and the High Sierras and the Rocky
Mountains all rolled into one. It was the scene of stagecoach holdups, posses chasing outlaws on owlhoot (outlaw) trails, Indians attacking white settlers in remote cabins, flying rocket men, and unearthly spaceship landings. It was a land for make-believe. It could be anything a Hollywood director fancied.
Boulder Pass is a fictitious name borrowed from an old B-Western movie. The real place is the Santa Susana Pass in Chatsworth, California. For nearly three-quarters of a century, the Santa Susana Pass
was home to the granddaddy of all movie location ranches--the Iverson Ranch.
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eBook available on dvd for $19.95 (includes S&H) at http://www.cowboyup .com
The printed edition $39.95 plus S&H is coming soon.
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Jerry England is a western movie historian and author who has researched and written about filming locations in the San Fernando Valley. Rendezvous at Boulder Pass is his second book about the area. In 2008 he published Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas.
Two Popular Trails Dedicated
to Equestrians and Hikers
There is good news for equestrians, hikers and others who enjoy the spectacular trails around northern Chatsworth.
Paperwork has been filed with the City of Los Angeles to dedicate two popular trails and ensure that they will remain open and available to the public.
The Variel Trail, which follows Variel Avenue north from Rinaldi Street along the northwestern edge of the Sierra Canyon elementary school campus and the trail along Rinaldi will both be permanently protected for public use. This includes the newer Bypass Trail that is a spur of the Variel Trail. The bypass takes a less steep path across part of the school campus and rejoins the Variel Trail near the Browns Canyon wash on the northeast side of the school.
In addition, the gate to the historic Mission Trail near the entrance to the Sierra Canyon High School campus will be open during all regular school hours. Eventual full-access to the Mission Trail is a condition of construction of a future phase of the high school.
It is expected to take approximately six months to complete all legal requirements related to the trail dedication.
The Equestrian Committee of the Chatsworth Neighborhood Council has spent several years attempting to secure these trails for public use.
Chatsworth Park South Status
At this time, most of Chatsworth Park South
is closed for public use until the Los Angeles Dept. of Recreation and Parks decides on a cleanup plan however Chatsworth Historical Society's "Homestead Acre" in Chatsworth Park South will be OPEN on the first Sunday of each month from 1 PM until 4 PM.
Access to Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park
The main entrance through Chatsworth Park South is closed however alternate entrances are available. The most convenient alternate access location is on Larwin Street, one block south of Devonshire Boulevard. Instead of driving into the (closed) park entrance, turn left (south) on Larwin Street and go one block until you come to a chain link fence on your right. This is very easy to locate because in addtion to the fence, an old set of power lines runs directly overhead. Park along the curb and enter the park through the gap in the fence.
The other alternate entrances to the park are (1) from Santa Susana Pass Road in the northwest corner of the park; (2) from Lilac Lane in the northwest quadrant of the park; (3) near the intersection of Lassen, Andora and Valley Circle southwest of the Oakwood Memorial Cemetery entrance. Another alternate entrance on Jeffery Mark Court is currently closed.
