John Wayne in Arizona

The location of the very first scene young John Wayne played in "The Big Trail".: at the banks of the Colorado, near Yuma, Arizona.

Young Duke shot his first scene under the name of John Wayne in Yuma, Arizona, the first location of The Big Trail.  A few miles from Yuma, at a river flat of the Colorado, Fox had built a pioneer town, then the biggest set ever built on location – more than forty buildings. They shot on this location for 16 days. For the duration in Yuma, the cast stayed at the Hotel del Ming, 300 Gila Street. It was then just a few years old and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

John Wayne used the Imperial County Sand Dunes, the hot location near Yuma, twice: in "The Big Trail" and in "Three Musketeers".

The Big Trail production then moved on to the Imperial County Sand Dunes, located west of Yuma, for the desert scenes. Interstate 8 travels through the southern portion of the dunes. Most filming took place in the Buttercup Valley area of the sand dunes, north of the interstate.

John Wayne made three movies in the area around Yuma, Arizona: "The Big Trail", "The Big Stampede", and the serial "Three Musketeers".

Two years after The Big Trail, Wayne was back on this location, filming The Big Stampede at a ranch west of Yuma. And he was back on those hot sand dunes the same year once more,  for the Mascot serial The Three Musketeers. Wayne always remembered how the temperature hit 120 degrees during the day. 

Sally Port, the entrance to the Yuma Territorial Prison State was used in John Wayne's "The Three Musketeers" as a fort entrance.

The Yuma Penitentiary (now the Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park at 220 Prison Hill Rd) was used as an Arab stronghold in The Three Musketeers. Its Sally Port was used as a heavily fought fort entrance. 

 

 

In the Mascot Serial "The Three Musketeers", the cells of the Yuma Penitentiary were used to jail John Wayne.

The Yuma Penitentiary was pend for business in 1876 and closed in 1909. After that, it was used as a shelter for the homeless during the Depression. It was at this time that the Mascot serial The Three Musketeers put it to good use. They gave the prison buildings a face-lift to remotely resemble the Arab headquarters. 

This prison cell in the Yuma Territorial Prison was actually used to hold John Wayne in the serial "Three Musketeers".

Actual prison cells were utilized to jail Wayne and his fellow „Musketeers“. This is the inside of the cell Wayne was jailed in. During its thirty-three years of operation, a total of 3,069 prisoners did time here. 


Howard Hawks shot the majority of the outdoors scenes for "Red River" with John Wayne in the Mustang Mountains, near Elgin.

Near the Elgin area, south of Highway 82 and just east of the Mustang Mountains, Howard Hawks chose Rain Valley for the outdoor scenes of Red River in 1946, and rented part of the valley. The first sequence, as Dunson leaves the wagon train, used the eastern side of the Mustang Mountains as a background, just south of Arizona State Highway 82. 

The Empire Ranch near Elgin, Arizona, became a movie location, most notably for John Wayne's classic "Red River".

When Tom Dunson sees his dream realized over a montage that gives the impression that 14 years have passed, these scenes were shot at the Empire Ranch, near Elgin. In 1976, the ranch house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Red River started it as a movie location.

Biscuit Mountain, near Elgin, Arizona, can be seen in many western scenes, including "Gunfight at the OK Corral".

 Tom Dunson rides out the ranch gate in the beginning of the cattle drive. The grasslands that surround the Empire Ranch, with the distinctive dome-topped Biscuit Mountain in the background, were later seen in other classics like Gunfight at the OK Corral. 

Elgin, Arizona, was the movie location for Abilene town in John Wayne's "Red River".

Elgin, forty miles east of Nogales, became the anchor town for the Red River company because the tiny town had a railroad depot back then. The construction of an eighty-eight-mile railroad line had begun in 1882, called the New Mexico and Arizona Railroad.  Hawks had the town of Abilene built by adding more buildings to the tiny village. The classic fight scene at the Elgin railroad depot took four days to shoot.

Some structures used in the classic John Wayne western "Red River" still exist in Elgin, along Upper Elgin Road.

The railroad line was discontinued in 1962. If you go looking for this Red River filming site at Upper Elgin Road, you'll still find traces where the tracks were originally laid. A well and a pump house was visible in the climactic fistfight between Wayne and Montgomery Clift and still exist. That same structure can be spotted in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (the railroad section in the Dodge City scenes) and 3:10 to Yuma (Glenn Ford's finally confronts his old gang at the railroad station). In 1955, the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! used the same set up.


For the famous river crossing of the cattle in John Wayne's "Red River", the San Pedro River near Tombstone was used.

For the famous river crossing scene, Hawks used the San Pedro River near Tombstone. 


Starting with "Red River", John Wayne stayed in the Sagebrush Inn whenever he shot in the Tombstone area.

Starting with location work for Red River, he stayed at the Sagebrush Inn whenever he got to Tombstone, “the town to tough to die”.


The Old Scharp’s Ranch House became a movie location for the John Wayne western "McLintock". It is now the San Rafael Ranch.

McLintock's brick ranch house was the lavish mansion of the cattle baron Colonel William Greene, thirty-six miles east of Nogales. Wayne and Bob Shelton, founder of Old Tucson studios, asked personally for permission to use the Old Scharp’s Ranch House. On their first try, Mrs. Green threw them out. The ranch house on 2036 Duquesne Road in Patagonia is now the San Rafael Ranch, preserved in the San Rafael State Natural Area.

John Wayne shot this scene with Stephanie Powers for "McLintock" on the Ralph Wingfield Ranch, east of Nogales, Arizona.

Not far from the San Rafael Ranch, east of Nogales, McLintock goes pheasant hunting on the Ralph Wingfield Ranch.