Josey Wales Filming Location?

[PHArchivist]

Anyone know the precise location of the homestead set from the final act of the film?

I know it was near Kanab, Utah, and I have even photographed the fiberglass "adobe" cabin (it is at a small, outdoor museum in Kanab). And I know exactly where the town of Santo Rio was - that is fairly well documented and not hard to get to, plus has been used in films since '62.

But I can't figure out the precise location of where the adobe homestead was set.

 

[PHArchivist]

No love for Eastwood, huh...?

 

[Apollo]

Love him no info though.

I knew a family who was his sponsor on "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot", his military liason, while they shot on the Air Force base and heard all the storys about how he was just a no nonsense down to earth guy, would come over to dinner numerous times while shooting even sending catered dinners to the family when he couldnt attend.

Some of the pics they have with him are priceless

He would send Christmas cards, AND still call them years later!

 

[Wolfsburg]

I love Clint Eastwood and have seen Josey Wales countless times so I'd be curious to know too!

 

[PHArchivist]

I ultimately found this location, but sadly being on a creek bed, its a riparian zone and now - 40 years later - is HEAVILY overgrown...

In the film, there were a few mature cottonwoods near the adobe. Today, it is 100% full of trees, shrubbery, etcetera. It is virtually impossible to access the exact spot of the adobe with out a machete (or perhaps even a chain saw) and permission to cut a path. Neither of which I had nor could obtain. And even if you DID slice a path to the footprint of the adobe, once there, you would STILL be surrounded by thick riparian vegetation, and unable to recognize where you were.

From above, looking down... In the dead center of the image you can see the tall cottonwoods that I am fairly certain were the trees seen in the film. This is where the adobe stood.



The light scar in center of this image can be seen easily in the film, albeit from the creek bed level.



These shots demonstrate how overgrown the creek bed is today

 

[rileyreplicas]

Man that is so cool! One of the best movies made and by far my favorite Eastwood and western movie!

 

[PHArchivist]

Yeah - was a bittersweet location visit. Was very happy and satisfied that I was able to find it. But bummed about the overgrown conditions.

The fiberglass adobe is still on display in a museum in town.

 

[Apollo]

Looks like nature reclaimed it's own

 

[robstyle]

Its a good thing you didnt try getting into that patch. They are generally heavily inhabited with all sorts of nastys.

On a similar note, the farm my grandfather was raised on in Wisconsin in the 30's suffered a similar fate. He left that farm out on his own when he was 12 years old, twelve years old, not a typo, in a 1931 Model A. He found and followed the railroad tracks ending up in Hawthorne CA about five or six years later. He even bought a house two blocks from that spot which I now own, the Model A is still in the garage as well. When he retired in the mid 90's he road tripped back to try and find that farm based on his own memory of its location. After a few days of driving back roads, he found it! The farmers that raised him (he was abandoned as a newborn) were long gone but a new family had taken over the land. They had been there many years yet had no clue a farmhouse had existed on the land prior. With the property owners in tow my grandpa took them to where he remembered the house being yet it was a dense field of trees and brush. Sure enough, the house was still partially standing in all that over growth! Not even the kids, whom were now adults, raised on that property knew it was there. They got inside and he took some pictures. The molasses jugs he used to fill with water were still in the corner yet everything looked like a Tim Burton movie with walls off kilter and window openings skewered, trees growing out of the living room floor... Ill have to find those pictures.
Mother nature aint got time for nobody.

 

[doppelganger]

Phew, for one god aweful minute I thought the title of the thread meant they were scouting for locations for a remake. Some movies need to be well left alone. We all know what happens when you mess with Josey Wales. As a pedlar once said "Oh my God..... Its Josey Wales" best whistle dixie and run like hell.

 

[Goonie]

I've been to the museum in Kanab. Pretty neat stuff there. Gotta rewatch Josey Wales again. Got all of Eastwood's westerns on Blu-Ray.

 

[PHArchivist]

Great story Rob! Would be interested in seeing those pictures.

I thought about following the creek itself, since clearly there is the least vegetation over the water. But not being certain how soft or unforgiving the mud of the creek bed may be, I figured getting stuck up to my knees was probably not a good idea.

The thing that perplexes me though is why / how it was clear 40 years ago? That creek has been there MANY years prior to 1975. I suppose the film crew may have cleared it but I really don't think so. There are other areas within the general creek bed path that are clear. I guess there are just cycles of growth, and natural causes for clearing vegetation (flood, fire, disease).

Its a good thing you didnt try getting into that patch. They are generally heavily inhabited with all sorts of nastys.

On a similar note, the farm my grandfather was raised on in Wisconsin in the 30's suffered a similar fate. He left that farm out on his own when he was 12 years old, twelve years old, not a typo, in a 1931 Model A. He found and followed the railroad tracks ending up in Hawthorne CA about five or six years later. He even bought a house two blocks from that spot which I now own, the Model A is still in the garage as well. When he retired in the mid 90's he road tripped back to try and find that farm based on his own memory of its location. After a few days of driving back roads, he found it! The farmers that raised him (he was abandoned as a newborn) were long gone but a new family had taken over the land. They had been there many years yet had no clue a farmhouse had existed on the land prior. With the property owners in tow my grandpa took them to where he remembered the house being yet it was a dense field of trees and brush. Sure enough, the house was still partially standing in all that over growth! Not even the kids, whom were now adults, raised on that property knew it was there. They got inside and he took some pictures. The molasses jugs he used to fill with water were still in the corner yet everything looked like a Tim Burton movie with walls off kilter and window openings skewered, trees growing out of the living room floor... Ill have to find those pictures.
Mother nature aint got time for nobody.

- - - Updated - - -

Phew, for one god aweful minute I thought the title of the thread meant they were scouting for locations for a remake. Some movies need to be well left alone. We all know what happens when you mess with Josey Wales. As a pedlar once said "Oh my God..... Its Josey Wales" best whistle dixie and run like hell.

Maybe if Clint was involved, and used his son Scott. Maybe...

Though Scott Eastwood is bout 15 years younger than Clint was in 1975.

- - - Updated - - -

I've been to the museum in Kanab. Pretty neat stuff there. Gotta rewatch Josey Wales again. Got all of Eastwood's westerns on Blu-Ray.

It's fairly clear that the fiberglass adobe is indeed the real deal. Though I'm pretty sure its been repainted over the years. The barn from the JW homestead set is also there.

 

[PHArchivist]

Using this web site:

[bad link]

You can clearly see the creek itself back in 1953.

By 1998 it was almost fully overgrown, and it appears the path of the creek itself has shifted (not surprisingly). I'm certainly no expert, but in some of the 1953 imagery, it looks almost as if there had been a recent flood (flash floods are very common in Southern Utah).

 

[PHArchivist]

Found an official document citing the flood history of the region, including Kanab Creek. Not sure if it is comprehensive, but it does cite dates back to the 1880's.

https://books.google.com/books?id=d...nepage&q=kanab creek flooding history&f=false

If one were to surmise based solely on this report, the conclusion would be that the Kanab Creek bed region experienced two significant flash floods during the time period relevant to the filming of The Outlaw Josey Wales (1975); first in 1955 and second in 1957. Prior to 1955 - per this report - the last recorded flood was in 1896, and post-1957 there were no additional recorded floods in this creek bed until after 1983 (if any - 1983 represents the extent of the report).

Extrapolating, if this report is indeed accurate and comprehensive, it is possible (if not likely) that the two nearly successive floods cleared the creek bed of vegetation, where as roughly 20 years later - at the time of filming - the region was not barren, scarred, or completely denuded of growth, but still generally clear of significant vegetation (as it appears in a natural, a somewhat recovered state the film). However, 40 years later (and 60 years following the recorded floods), it stands to reason that the creek bed is now fully overgrown (this assumes no more floods occurred since 1983, of which the level of vegetative growth seems to indicate).

Or maybe I'm just talking out my ass since I'm no ecology, geology, or biology professor!

 

[drcraig13]

Or maybe I'm just talking out my ass since I'm no ecology, geology, or biology professor!

You mean that's not what we do here???

 

[PHArchivist]

You mean that's not what we do here???

Yes...

And yes - I have spent too much time thinking about this spot!

 

[PHArchivist]

Here are some shots from the documentary on the film, demonstrating just how clear the creek bed arroyo was at the time.

The second view in this post is about the same as the view in the second of my own images, again though shot from the creek bed level.

 

[PHArchivist]

Couple more looks that show how much the area has changed...


In this image, its clear that the red circle encloses the same features in all three images. In the modern shot, the grasses that show in the bottom half of the contemporary image are above the creek bed; they are not the same plot of land where the camera set-up is. The camera - in the current image - would be out of frame to the right and below the tree that is on the far right edge of the image.


In this shot, Eastwood would have been sitting about where the red circle is facing left in the image.

 

[PHArchivist]

Addition to the same collage - in the the green circle, it is quite possible the same tree.

 

[Apollo]

I am always fascinated by how fast nature erases what we leave behind, ie Detroit, some areas the asphalt is almost gone :eek