UPDATE 06-05-08: You gotta love the Internet. Here's a neat update on the Elgin site.
This is a series of three emails from Fred Allard that came in on the same day by a recent
viewer of Lizanne's web page.
Email #1:
Hello:
I was just looking at your web site and was quite impressed. I too found my eyes focused
on your Pixie dancer whenever I watched the movie. I live close to the movie locations
and have some photos that I would like to share with you taken in Both Elgin and San
Rafael Ranch where the house and barn was located. You are wrong about the train
station being converted to a house. The station was built for the movie and then torn
down. I had a friend who worked on building it but he has since passed away. The farm
house and barn were also built for the movie and torn down with the grounds returned to
original condition.
I worked on the San Rafael Ranch for about a year and know exactly where the movie
was filmed. Please reply to my email so I know that this email address is still a good one.
When I get back home to Arizona I will attach photos that I have of the train station site.
Regards,
Fred
(My Reply - I would be delighted to get the pics.)
Email #2:
Thanks for the email. The site that was used for the train station in the movie was
actually part way covering the road. Back in those days it was a dirt road as you can see
in the movie. The first scene of the train station was taken either with a high camera lift
or from the club house up on the hillside. They used an extremely wide angle lens for
that first scene. I took a bunch of pictures of the same area and used a piece of software
called Autostitch to piece them together in an attempt to get a similar photo.
By the way, the location where the train station was is the same place where they filmed
that last five minutes of the Glenn Ford movie 3:10 to Yuma.
I also have a photo of the two trunk tree that you can see in the background at the farm
house. A few of the old timers that I used to have coffee with in the morning told me
that the summer they filmed the movie it rained all the time. Apparently they had to
return to the movie location to re-film the scene where he sings " Surrey with the fringe
on top" and then spliced some of the scenes together with the first takes. If you look in
the background while they are singing that song you will see everything green and then
not quite as green and then back again. It's not noticeable by most people who are
watching the movie because we train our eyes on what's going on in the forground with
the main actors.
When I was working on the ranch I became interested in finding the exact spot where the
farm house was located. I bought a typographical map program and even attempted to
find it by mapping out how the Santa Cruz River twisted around the house and barn
area.
I spent a few months searching all this out before mentioning it to my coffee buddies and
felt like a fool when they told me that I was wrong in the location and that they had
worked on the site. The lady I worked with on the ranch saw me taking photos one day
after work down the road from the ranch house. She asked me what I was doing and I
told her that I was trying to search out the site of the house and barn in the movie. The
next day after work she told me to stop in the same location and her husband would meet
me out there.
Apparently he was 17 years old when they made the movie and the movie company hired
him to sleep in his truck to guard the house and barn area overnight. He showed me the
exact location of the house and barn and I told him that it did not line up with the wind
mill that you can see in the background; again in the scene where he sings " Surrey ".
He told me that the wind mill was a prop that they set up and then tore down after the
movie.
I guess you know that the corn was brought in and planted and then a trench dug for the
horse to ride for the opening scenes of the movie. The corn had to be as high as an
Elephants eye; that's how they made it look that tall.
I still don't know where they filmed the scene where she is swimming in the pond. I've
looked everywhere out there and can't find a pond like the one in the movie. But it's
funny about movies, one scene will be filmed in Arizona and another in another state.
Possibly the pond scene was taken on the studio lot.
I mentioned that the house/barn scene was filmed on the San Rafael Ranch which is
about an hours drive from Elgin . The ranch house has been used in a few movies, the
most famous is John Wayne's McClintock. It has also been used in a Johnny Depp
movie that I can't remember the name of and a made for tv movie called "Gunsmoke to
the last man". The house is approximately 10,000 sq feet and was used in only the
outside scenes in McClintock. The inside shots were taken in a sound stage probably in
Hollywood . It's a beautiful house and is now owned by the State of Arizona.
I am spending two weeks in Colorado so when I get home I'll send you the photos that I
have. I hope you have high speed internet as I have quite a few pictures.
Email #3:
If you double click on the attached file it will take you to the film location for the train
scene in Oklahoma. You might have to download and install Google Earth but it's
worth it. Click on each pin for an explanation. In both the movie Oklahoma and 3:10 to
Yuma you can see two train tracks. There was one on each side of the movie station. At
the right of this screen you can click on the minue sign and zoom out to see the bed
where the tracks were laid. They go at a 45 degree angle from upper left to lower right of
screen. I can see why you thought that the house was the train station. You took your
photo from the little bridge toward the back of the house and with the front yard tree,
along with Biscuit & Mustang Mts in the background everything seems to line up. All
except the road. That's why you thought that they might have moved the house 100 or so
yards away.
This is a series of three emails from Fred Allard that came in on the same day by a recent
viewer of Lizanne's web page.
Email #1:
Hello:
I was just looking at your web site and was quite impressed. I too found my eyes focused
on your Pixie dancer whenever I watched the movie. I live close to the movie locations
and have some photos that I would like to share with you taken in Both Elgin and San
Rafael Ranch where the house and barn was located. You are wrong about the train
station being converted to a house. The station was built for the movie and then torn
down. I had a friend who worked on building it but he has since passed away. The farm
house and barn were also built for the movie and torn down with the grounds returned to
original condition.
I worked on the San Rafael Ranch for about a year and know exactly where the movie
was filmed. Please reply to my email so I know that this email address is still a good one.
When I get back home to Arizona I will attach photos that I have of the train station site.
Regards,
Fred
(My Reply - I would be delighted to get the pics.)
Email #2:
Thanks for the email. The site that was used for the train station in the movie was
actually part way covering the road. Back in those days it was a dirt road as you can see
in the movie. The first scene of the train station was taken either with a high camera lift
or from the club house up on the hillside. They used an extremely wide angle lens for
that first scene. I took a bunch of pictures of the same area and used a piece of software
called Autostitch to piece them together in an attempt to get a similar photo.
By the way, the location where the train station was is the same place where they filmed
that last five minutes of the Glenn Ford movie 3:10 to Yuma.
I also have a photo of the two trunk tree that you can see in the background at the farm
house. A few of the old timers that I used to have coffee with in the morning told me
that the summer they filmed the movie it rained all the time. Apparently they had to
return to the movie location to re-film the scene where he sings " Surrey with the fringe
on top" and then spliced some of the scenes together with the first takes. If you look in
the background while they are singing that song you will see everything green and then
not quite as green and then back again. It's not noticeable by most people who are
watching the movie because we train our eyes on what's going on in the forground with
the main actors.
When I was working on the ranch I became interested in finding the exact spot where the
farm house was located. I bought a typographical map program and even attempted to
find it by mapping out how the Santa Cruz River twisted around the house and barn
area.
I spent a few months searching all this out before mentioning it to my coffee buddies and
felt like a fool when they told me that I was wrong in the location and that they had
worked on the site. The lady I worked with on the ranch saw me taking photos one day
after work down the road from the ranch house. She asked me what I was doing and I
told her that I was trying to search out the site of the house and barn in the movie. The
next day after work she told me to stop in the same location and her husband would meet
me out there.
Apparently he was 17 years old when they made the movie and the movie company hired
him to sleep in his truck to guard the house and barn area overnight. He showed me the
exact location of the house and barn and I told him that it did not line up with the wind
mill that you can see in the background; again in the scene where he sings " Surrey ".
He told me that the wind mill was a prop that they set up and then tore down after the
movie.
I guess you know that the corn was brought in and planted and then a trench dug for the
horse to ride for the opening scenes of the movie. The corn had to be as high as an
Elephants eye; that's how they made it look that tall.
I still don't know where they filmed the scene where she is swimming in the pond. I've
looked everywhere out there and can't find a pond like the one in the movie. But it's
funny about movies, one scene will be filmed in Arizona and another in another state.
Possibly the pond scene was taken on the studio lot.
I mentioned that the house/barn scene was filmed on the San Rafael Ranch which is
about an hours drive from Elgin . The ranch house has been used in a few movies, the
most famous is John Wayne's McClintock. It has also been used in a Johnny Depp
movie that I can't remember the name of and a made for tv movie called "Gunsmoke to
the last man". The house is approximately 10,000 sq feet and was used in only the
outside scenes in McClintock. The inside shots were taken in a sound stage probably in
Hollywood . It's a beautiful house and is now owned by the State of Arizona.
I am spending two weeks in Colorado so when I get home I'll send you the photos that I
have. I hope you have high speed internet as I have quite a few pictures.
Email #3:
If you double click on the attached file it will take you to the film location for the train
scene in Oklahoma. You might have to download and install Google Earth but it's
worth it. Click on each pin for an explanation. In both the movie Oklahoma and 3:10 to
Yuma you can see two train tracks. There was one on each side of the movie station. At
the right of this screen you can click on the minue sign and zoom out to see the bed
where the tracks were laid. They go at a 45 degree angle from upper left to lower right of
screen. I can see why you thought that the house was the train station. You took your
photo from the little bridge toward the back of the house and with the front yard tree,
along with Biscuit & Mustang Mts in the background everything seems to line up. All
except the road. That's why you thought that they might have moved the house 100 or so
yards away.
| An Interesting Elgin Email |
