Who 'discovered' Monument Valley?/ Credit for starting Hollywood's

Success has many fathers, so it's not unusual that there is more than one version of how Hollywood "discovered" Monument Valley.

There's little dispute that the valley's big break came with the arrival of John Ford in 1938 to shoot the Western "Stagecoach," starring John Wayne as the Ringo Kid, the archetypal bad boy with a heart of gold. But who lured Ford to Monument Valley is a more convoluted tale. Until the late 1930s, the valley was a distant spot on the American map, a harsh, dry place with little water and no electricity. Situated within the sprawling Navajo reservation, it was 180 miles from the nearest railway - the longest distance of any spot in the United States.

The most popular legend of how Ford came to Monument Valley gives most of the credit to Harry Goulding and his wife, Leone, who had the nickname "Mike." The couple established a trading post in 1924, bartering with local Navajos. The Great Depression hit the already poverty-stricken area hard.

The story goes that one night in 1938, Harry Goulding heard on the radio that John Ford was looking for a fresh location to film a Western. He drove out Route 66 to Hollywood and went to see Ford with binders full of photographs. When a secretary said Ford was too busy, Goulding went outside, grabbed his bedroll, came back and said, "I'll wait." Ford was summoned and saw Goulding's pix. Goulding told Ford that he'd also have all the authentic Indian extras he'd ever need. Enchanted, Ford decided to film "Stagecoach" in Monument Valley.

A great story. But is it true? Monument Valley was hardly unknown. Popular pulp novelist Zane Grey set some of his Westerns there. Theodore Roosevelt visited when he was out of the White House. Krazy Kat, a popular early 20 th-century cartoon strip, featured the valley. The first Hollywood film shot in Monument Valley was the 1925 silent film "The Vanishing American." Ford himself claimed to have found the place during a car trip to Santa Fe, N.M.

Historian Garry Wills wrote in "John Wayne's America" that Bert Glennon, a cameraman on "The Vanishing American," was a cameraman for Ford on "Stagecoach." Wills also cited Hollywood documents showing that it was another trading-post owner, John Wetherill, who had approached Ford. Ford, Wayne and other actors and top staff likely stayed at Wetherill's trading post in Kayenta, while extras and support staff were housed at Goulding's and an abandoned Civilian Conservation Corps camp nearby.

By the time Ford returned eight years later to film "My Darling Clementine," Goulding had improved his facilities to the point that the whole production company could stay on his property. Ford even built his mythical version of Tombstone among the scrubby snakewood plants. The town's street was angled perfectly to maximize the golden morning and afternoon sun and frame some of the buttes between the buildings.

By the time filming ended, Ford and Goulding were well on the way to a lifelong friendship.

"They conveniently remembered themselves as the sole discoverers and developers of the Valley for cinematic purposes," Wills wrote.

Notable movies filmed in Monument Valley

(John Ford movies in bold type)

1939, "Stagecoach"

1940, "Kit Carson"

1941, "Billy the Kid"

1946, "My Darling Clementine"

1948, "Fort Apache"

1949, "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon"

1956, "The Searchers"

1962, "How The West Was Won"

1964, "Cheyenne Autumn"

1968, "2001: A Space Odyssey"

1969, "Easy Rider"

1969, "Once Upon a Time in the West"

1969, "MacKenna's Gold"

1971, "Wild Rovers"

1973, "Electra Glide in Blue"

1974, "The Trial of Billy Jack"

1975, "The Eiger Sanction"

1981, "The Legend of the Lone Ranger"

1983, "National Lampoon's Vacation"

1990, "Back to the Future III"

1991, "Thelma and Louise"

1993, "Tall Tales"

1993, "Pontiac Moon"

1993, "Forrest Gump"

Source: Goulding's Lodge

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