Cowboys’ Legacy : Simi Council Considering Landmark Status for Corriganville Movie Ranch

Although the last of the cowboy actors at Corriganville Movie Ranch rode off into the sunset a long time ago, people like Bill Ehrheart have made sure that memories of the place won’t just fade away.

Standing in front of the wrought-iron and wagon wheel gate, one of the only things that remains of the old property, Ehrheart said the ranch represents a precious piece of American history.

Like many from his generation, he was weaned on 10-cent Saturday movie matinees and Westerns--”The Lone Ranger,” the “Red Ryder” series and “The Cisco Kid”--which were filmed at the ranch near Simi Valley. Ehrheart, 60, has made it his mission to preserve the memory of the Westerns and the movie site where they were filmed for posterity.

Over 3,500 movies and television shows were filmed at the sprawling ranch, which was opened in 1937 by film star and stuntman Ray (Crash) Corrigan. The close proximity to Hollywood made it appealing to Depression-era filmmakers. During its 30-year history, Corrigan turned the site into one of Hollywood’s most prolific movie ranches.

On Monday night, the Simi Valley City Council began considering whether to add the ranch and its picturesque vistas to a list of 153 historical landmarks in the county, but delayed a final decision until Aug. 21.

The research used for that designation was done by Ehrheart, a retired postal carrier, whose work on the history of the movie ranch also helped him get a master’s degree in public history from Cal State Dominguez Hills this year.

“I’m trying to downplay my years with the Postal Service,” Ehrheart said, dressed in a big cowboy hat, leather vest and black boots.

“It’s my Ben Cartwright outfit,” he said.

Over the years, movies, matinee serials and television series were filmed on the sets and in the backcountry of the 2,000-acre ranch. Corriganville was the largest and most prolific of the roughly 20 movie ranches that operated during the heyday of movie and television Westerns, Ehrheart said.

The ranch was also the site of the nation’s first Western-style theme park. Corrigan opened the ranch to the public in 1949, staging gunfights and showing the curious how movies were made.

At its peak, the ranch attracted as many as 15,000 visitors in a day, Ehrheart said. Tourists used to navigate the winding Santa Susana pass to get a glimpse at how such movies as “Fort Apache” and “The Robe” were made.

Along with John Wayne, such actors as Errol Flynn, Douglas Fairbanks, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy rode the ranch’s dusty back roads.

The ranch was closed in 1966 after Corrigan sold it to actor Bob Hope.

A series of fires and vandals destroyed the sets that made up the Western-style town. The only thing that remains apart from the gate and the foundations of a few of the buildings are the dramatic rocky vistas, sprawling oaks, and dusty trails that were the backdrop of so many pictures.

In 1987, the state gave $1 million to the Rancho Simi Park District to buy 172 acres of the old ranch. The land includes the former movie set locations. Later purchases brought the total acreage to over 200 acres.

A local group called the Corriganville Restoration Committee has tried unsuccessfully for years to raise money to rebuild a few of the movie sets and put up a museum on the property. According to committee leader Steve Gillum, a stuntman who used to work at the Corriganville Movie Ranch, interest in preserving the site has lagged.

Still, people like Ehrheart and Tom Corrigan, Crash Corrigan’s 51-year-old son, have been working to pump up interest in restoring the property.

Ehrheart has depended on Tom Corrigan, who runs a steakhouse in Thousand Oaks, for much of his research.

“I owe a lot of thanks to Ehrheart for sitting me down and getting the documentation together,” Corrigan said. “It would have never happened without him. A lot of credit is owed to that man. Guess fate brought us together.”

Overloaded with work and years of memorabilia, which decorated his restaurant, Corrigan said he would have never had the time or patience to go through and catalogue the films and put the photographs in order.

“When I was growing up there I didn’t realize how important it was,” he said.

The walls of his restaurant are loaded with photographs of his father. There’s a picture of his father, eating a bowl of Wheaties, the first man to endorse the cereal. And there are plenty of pictures of Crash Corrigan in scenes with John Wayne and other famous stars.

“He knew about everybody,” Tom Corrigan said of his father. “All the big Western stars worked there at some time or another. It’s a piece of history.”