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Travel West guide to unique destinations, sight-seeing, history and
culture, budget travel vacation ideas for the U.S., Canada and Caribbean.
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PIONEERTOWN
Western Movie Town in the Mohave
In the 70s movie “Hearts of the West” a young Jeff Bridges
plays a naïve would-be writer who travels west to collect money
he’s sent to a conman and finds himself an actor in B-movie westerns,
following a troupe of contract players who would travel from Hollywood’s “Gower
Gulch” where the low budget studios were located,
making the long drive out to the desert to shoot westerns in the likes
of Red Rock Canyon.
In 1946, at the height of western movies and serials, a group of cowboy
actors got tired of making the drive and had an idea to build a film
set where they could stay while shooting their “oater” epics.
Pioneertown
in the high desert in Yucca Valley to the north of Palm Springs was
built
as a small western town movie set, with colorful exteriors
facing the dry gulch street would represent saloons, stables, sheriff’s
office and jails, while the interiors of the buildings would be used
as working shops, including an ice cream parlor and even a bowling alley.
The town was named after the Sons of the Pioneers western music group,
which featured Roy Rogers before his own solo career broke out to singing
cowboy fame (see National
Cowboy Museum). Other investor participants
included western “villain” actor
Dick Kurtis and Bud Abbot of Abbot and Costello, and even the Hollywood
gossip girl Louella Parsons, apparently buying herself a little access
to the movie community. More than fifty movies and a number of television
shows were filmed on the street of Pioneertown from 1946 until the end
of the 1950s, when productions started to seek more sophisticated locations.
Pioneertown Lodge Motel
The Pioneertown
Lodge was built at the same time just off the old west street with
18 rooms
to provide living accommodations for the actors
and crew when out shooting a movie and later TV series. The original
participants had their favorite rooms, which could be rent out to others
when they weren’t working. The rooms of the Pionnertown Lodge Motel
are still open for lodging in the original country style furnished rooms
named for their famed inhabitants, Roy Roger, Dale Evans, Gene Autry
and John Wayne.
The
Pioneertown Lodge Motel can get a bit busy at high season, but makes
for
a getway to view desert
meteor showers, or a rustic visit to the
high desert landscapes of nearby Josua Tree National Park. The location
for Pioneertown was partly chosen because at about 4,000 ft
elevation
stays
much cooler
in
the summers
than the
lowers deserts so filming could take advantage of the longer days when
heat would make other spots unbearable, so Pioneertown still remains
a comfortable escape.
Pioneertown Posse Performs Weekends
From
April through October every Saturday the Pioneertown Posse, volunteer
Old West
re-enactor troupe of players in costume give live
performances and 2:30pm on the town’s Mane Street across from the
Bowling Alley. The group is made of up local residents who began their
stage careers as the robbers performing in the annual Morongo Grubstakes
Days. The performances of comedic antics and gunplay always ends with
asking kids to make a pledge of the Pioneertown Cowboy Code of being
good boys
and girls, so reminiscent of the days and ideals of Roy Rogers, the years
melt away.
Pappy & Harriets Pioneertown Palace
At
the intersection of Pioneertown Road and Curtis Road at the edge
of the western movie town is the legendary
Pappy & Harriets Pioneertown Palace. First
built as a Cantina set exterior with a modest bar, popular with bikers
on the back country desert roads to Las Vegas inside. The building was
taken over 1982 by Harriet and Claude "Pappy" Allen, as a “Tex-Mex” family
restaurant. The Allen’s had connections in the rock & roll
and country music world and music acts began coming out to the desert
to perform in the saloon with the bill-of-fare now more known for its
barbeque.
From the
roadside Pappy & Harriets can seem almost like an abandoned
adobe relic left over from the real estate market crash, but inside,
the rich wood bar, colorful bottle glass windows and cowboy movie and
music star photo covered walls make this one of the high desert hot spots
with live music playing to sometimes packed houses on a rollicking night
when the Ghost Riders pass over in the starry night sky.
To get to Pioneertown take Highway 62 - Twentynine Palms Highway from Interstate 10 just after the Palm Springs north to Yucca Valley left on Pioneertown Road. If you want to avoid the traffic on the I15 to Las Vegas try this detour for a nostalgic look back at Hollywood western movie history, or stop over for a night in Roy Rogers' room. © Bargain Travel West
Read Reviews of Pioneertown Motel
Find best hotel and vacation deals in Yucca Valley on TripAdvisor
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Pioneertown
These articles are copyrighted and the sole property of Bargain Travel West and WLEV, LLC. and may not be copied or reprinted without permission.
See these other articles on Bargain Travel West:
DESERT CHRIST PARK - YUCCA VALLEY
JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK – KEYS RANCH TOUR
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