Some of filmstrips contain stories from aging ranchers who worked as extras on “The Ten Commandments,” which was filmed on the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes on the Central Coast. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
Park ranger Tina Snijdewind surveys the bare dunes. But below lie remnants of a vast Egyptian civilization created under the direction of French artist Paul Iribe. (Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times)
John Perry is Guadalupe’s unofficial historian and his NAPA Auto Parts store is often mistaken for an antique shop, crammed with artifacts such as this sphinx paw from DeMille’s movie set. (Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times)
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Brosnan digs through decades’ worth of work. In the early 1980s, he set out to unearth the set, a quest still unfulfilled. “I didn’t realize when I started this project that it was going to become an epic of its own,” he said. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
