Lone Pine Strikes Gold With Help of Silver--and Trigger : Movies: A mother lode of history glimmers in the shadows of Mt. Whitney, backdrop for ‘The Lone Ranger,’ Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, ‘Bad Day at Black Rock,’ even ‘Gunga Din.’ Town’s annual festival is among coming attractions.

A mother lode of movie history glimmers in the rocky hills just off the highway that leads hikers to Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the continental United States.

A few minutes drive from the intersection where Whitney Portal Road meets State Highway 395, movie buffs can find the mountain divide where almost everyone from John Wayne to the Lone Ranger used to head ‘em off at the pass.

Such movie heritage is celebrated at the annual Lone Pine Film Festival, which begins Friday and runs through the weekend in this High Sierra town about 180 miles north of Los Angeles.

The red rock and sandstone of the nearby Alabama Hills provided the backdrop for the first ambush in “The Lone Ranger” series and endless scenery for Roy Rogers and his wonder horse, Trigger.

This year’s festival honors the career of Gene Autry, one of Hollywood’s most famous singing cowboys, who went on to buy the California Angels and open the Autry Museum of Western Heritage.

Some of Autry’s movies will be screened at the festival, including “Pirates on Horseback” and “Melody of the West.”

But the scenic foothills of Lone Pine played supporting roles in countless other kinds of films, many of them classics.

In the shadow of Mt. Whitney, Humphrey Bogart dodged the cops in “High Sierra,” a villainous Jack Lemmon chased a heroic Tony Curtis in “The Great Race,” and Cary Grant battled mountain tribesmen in “Gunga Din.”

Many of Hollywood’s leading stars stayed in Lone Pine at the Dow Villa Hotel, a restored rustic stopping place decorated with numerous signed John Wayne photographs.

“I worked the front desk when they made ‘How the West Was Won,”’ said local Realtor Dorothy Bonnefin. “It was a rotating door, with a new star coming in every week . . . Jimmy Stewart, Debbie Reynolds, Henry Fonda.”

Bonnefin provided more personal scenery when she joined the extras filming “King of the Khyber Rifles,” one of the frequent outings where the rugged hills and jagged peaks impersonated the grandeur of British India.

“We played the British ladies. We’d sit in our hoop skirts and sip lemonade,” she said.

Tents that made up the British army garrisons or U.S. Cavalry outposts did double duty as studio makeup and commissary stations, she said.

Among the movies to be screened at the festival are “Plainsman and the Lady,” a Hopalong Cassidy favorite starring William Elliott. Another is Saturday matinee cowboy Tim Holt’s “Arizona Rangers,” and “Hangman’s Knot,” starring Randolph Scott with Lee Marvin playing a bad guy.

During the festival, movie buffs can take five different tours conducted by festival director Dave Holland, a former newspaper reporter and Hollywood press agent, and author of “On Location in Lone Pine.”

“The Alabama Hills is a living movie museum,” Holland said. “When you get out here and start making discoveries, deja vu takes over. You travel out Whitney Portal Road, you’re riding the road that the cops chased Humphrey Bogart with Ida Lupino.”

Ernest Borgnine, one of this year’s invited guests, made “Bad Day at Black Rock” in the area with Spencer Tracy and Lee Marvin. Also on the guest list is Karl Malden, who made “Nevada Smith” with Steve McQueen near Lone Pine. “Nevada Smith” will be screened at the festival.

The weekend’s entertainment also features workshops by stuntmen, supporting players and villains. Festival-goers can mingle with the movie people at outdoor barbecues, a parade and a concert by The Sons of the San Joaquin, a regional country band.

“There’s so much love here,” Holland said. “Our guests come to share their memories with the people who love what they created here.”

The area still gets its share of movie and television business. In recent years, Mel Gibson and James Garner filmed parts of “Maverick” in the area, and Kevin Bacon vaulted over the tumbled rocks in “Tremors,” a science fiction comedy with Reba McIntyre. The area also is featured in commercials.

“I was showing property to a Hollywood screenwriter and his wife,” Bonnefin said, “and she came and told me, ‘I just saw Jack Palance on a cattle drive.’ ”