Corriganville Rides Back Out of the Sunset

It wasn’t so long ago that this sedate model of suburbia was home to hard-drinking gamblers, stagecoach heists, gunfights and ill-tempered outlaws with itchy trigger fingers.

It was at the Corriganville Movie Ranch, once the favored stomping ground for such Hollywood luminaries as Clark Gable and John Wayne, that these western dramas played out.

And soon, the ranch will officially reopen as Corriganville Park for movie buffs, hikers and folks just looking for a shady oak grove to spread out a picnic blanket.

“When you watch those old westerns, you recognize Simi Valley and Corriganville,” said Rick Johnson, a senior administrator for the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District. “It’s certainly a special part of the city’s history.”

After being threatened with development and sitting largely idle for more than a decade, the 225-acre Corriganville Park, located off Smith Road on the east end of town, will officially open Saturday with guided hikes, western skits, tours of the old movie set, food and music.

Though the park has lost most of its Hollywood luster, officials said that as funds become available they will add amenities such as a replica of the movie town, better trails and an amphitheater.

Owned jointly by the park district and the city of Simi Valley, Corriganville was used for more than a decade as a location for about 3,500 films and television programs, including “The Streets of Laredo,” “The Lone Ranger” and “Jungle Jim” and John Wayne’s “Fort Apache.”

And although park administrators said its history adds a certain charm to the park, they hope it will be used by patrons as a place to experience and appreciate a natural beauty that is becoming increasingly rare in Southern California.

“This place is so much more than just an old movie location,” Johnson said. “If you want to see what Simi Valley was like 400 or 500 years ago, this is it. . . . Corriganville is the real McCoy.”

Although little is left of the old set besides cracked concrete foundations and rusted toilet hookups, one can see the old “hangin’ tree”--a towering oak used for the execution of outlaws in dozens of films--and the cave where Tonto nursed an injured Lone Ranger back to health.

There is also a large concrete basin that was once filled with water for production of the “Jungle Jim” series and was used to film several scenes for “The African Queen” with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn.

“Kind of funny that they used Corriganville, seeing as there are no oak trees in Africa,” Johnson said. “But it worked.”

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When more money becomes available, the park district hopes to repair the basin and fill it with water for a swimming hole.

Within the next decade, the Corriganville Preservation Society, which is raising money to support the park, hopes to build a replica of the old movie town, complete with a saloon, stables and a general store.

Despite the lack of any tangible vestige of the old set, Jack Harding, a member of the Trail Riders of the West film association, said that wouldn’t dull the interest of anyone who grew up going to Saturday matinees to watch William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy.

“You know, it’s sad that the buildings aren’t there anymore, but it’s the landscape that matters,” the 56-year-old Harding said. “The first time I stepped on the property, I felt like I’d been there a thousand times before. . . . I knew every trail, every cave and every tree. . . . When I closed my eyes I could see everything exactly the way it was.”

The land that is now Corriganville Park was once home to the Chumash, who harvested the area’s willow and chaparral to trade for goods from other tribes east of the Santa Susanas.

Among the cliff faces and abundant caves in and around the park, there are still pictographs illustrating the wants and worries of early residents.

In early 1937, after filming “Mutiny on the Bounty,” Clark Gable took Ray Corrigan to the old McScott Ranch in the Simi Hills to hunt the quail that nest in the rocky outcroppings.

Spellbound by the natural vistas, Corrigan purchased the 1,740-acre property for $11,354 and began creating the movie set.

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It operated until 1949, when Corrigan turned it into a theme attraction for the public. During the 1950s as many as 20,000 people made their way over the rutted Santa Susana Pass to watch the kind of choreographed shootouts and bank heists they’d grown to love on the silver screen.

“For people all over the world who’d grown to love these movies, Corriganville was the West,” said Pat Havens, director of the Straethern Historical Park in Simi Valley. “For them it was a tremendously significant place, and because of that it still is.”

Needing money after a divorce, Corrigan sold the property in the 1960s for $2.5 million to entertainer Bob Hope, who renamed it Hopetown.

Hope revived the property as a film location for a year, then closed it.

In later years, brush fires destroyed the wood buildings that served as scenery for some of Hollywood’s most famous westerns, and the area fell into disrepair until Hope sold it in 1985 to Griffin Homes for development.

In 1988, however, the property was saved after the park district and city used a $1-million state grant and an incentive deal to purchase a portion of the land from developers.

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Saturday’s dedication will mark the end of a long road for the city, park district and area organizations that have labored diligently to see the park preserved for future generations.

In addition to the miles of dirt trails that meander about the sandstone cliffs--which will be refurbished sometime in the next five years--the Simi Valley Rotary Club is putting the finishing touches on an ecology and conservation center for children. Area schools will be allowed to use the park and environmental center for field trips.

“There’s a real opportunity for children to learn about their surroundings and history by using this park,” said Otto Austel, a Rotary Club member. “It was something we as an organization thought too good to pass up.”

Simi Valley Councilwoman Barbara Williamson, who along with Councilman Paul Miller helped the district found Corriganville Park, said that as the city grows increasingly urbanized, natural preserves are invaluable.

“Any time you can build a park for the public, it’s important,” she said. “But this one is special, and not only because of its history in the movies. . . . It’s wild and the perfect place to get away from the hubbub of everyday life.”