The High Desert of Southern California, a stunning landscape filled with no-frills small towns, has a decades-long relationship with Hollywood, for better or for worse.
Pioneertown. Image copyright 2018 by Anna Boudinot
In 1946 a group of actors known for their work in Western flicks, Dick Curtis, Russell Hayden, and Lillian Porter, decided to build a Western set on a plot of desert land that Curtis had purchased. The set would serve not as a temporary backdrop for a single production, but a long-term setting with actual buildings that provided shooting locations and housing for film casts and crews. Investors in the project included Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and members of Rogers’ Western singing group Sons of the Pioneers. Legend has it that Pioneertown was almost named “Rogersville,” but “Pioneertown” was considered more nonpartisan.
The main drag of Pioneertown was constructed to look like an Old West Main Street (this one is cheekily named “Mane Street”), a dirt road edged with 1890s-style buildings including a saloon, telegraph office, and bathhouse. Rogers had a non-period bowling alley built for recreation during down time on set; it was in operation until only recently. Houses built on the outskirts of the movie set served as lodging for actors and production teams. In the 1950s and 60s, Pioneertown served as the backdrop for over 50 movies and TV shows.
Today’s Pioneertown is part of the town of Yucca Valley, which has origins as a watering hole between the stagecoach stop in Banning and the Twentynine Palms mining district. WWI vets migrated to Yucca Valley to breathe in the clean, dry, air that benefited lungs damaged by gas attacks. “In the late 1950s, members of Los Angeles society not particularly drawn to the pool party lifestyle of Palm Springs discovered the Morongo Basin, and desert subdivisions began to attach themselves to Route 62,” Chris Clarke, a resident of the neighboring Joshua Tree, wrote for KCET in 2013. The High Desert has had a love/hate relationship with Los Angeles society for decades: Angelenos bring money into the region but sometimes bring their fickleness as well.
Hay Feed, Pioneertown, CA. Photo copyright 2018 by Anna Boudinot
Waning interest in the Western genre inevitably ended Pioneertown’s heyday on the silver screen, but the surrounding community has kept Mane Street alive. Former cast and crew housing has been converted into private residences, and the community now has about 350 residents. A pottery shop, art gallery, vintage clothing store, and motel all occupy former movie set buildings. On a recent visit I enjoyed browsing through a used bookstore in a barn that doubles as a performance space. It’s called the Hay Feed but I can find virtually nothing about it online — telling me it’s more of a local hangout than a tourist destination.
Pioneertown does have its fair share of tourist destinations, though: the Mane Street Stampede Wild West Show reenacts Old West shootouts free of charge the second and fourth Saturdays of the month, and Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace attracts musicians as diverse as Sir Paul McCartney, Cracker, and 90s punk rockers Babes in Toyland.
Sunset in Pioneertown. Photo copyright 2018 by Anna Boudinot
Pappy and Harriet’s, which appeared as a cantina in many a Western, is another way the entertainment industry has left its mark on Yucca Valley. Angelenos flock to the restaurant / concert venue to eat TexMex and burgers, drink beer, and catch performances by some of today’s most revered indie rock bands. Many artists schedule gigs at Pappy and Harriet’s in between appearances at the Coachella Music Festival, making April a particularly exciting month to visit.
Visitors should come prepared, however: shows sell out often, and the dining room is consistently packed. Those showing up without reservations can expect a long wait and a stern admonition from the hostess about table availability (“I need this table back in an hour and fifteen minutes”), even on nights without mainstream headliners. The House Band performs on Sundays and draws a crowd of locals who greet each other affectionately and dance with an exuberance that image-conscious Angelenos could never bring themselves to display.
While Pioneertown has an obvious link to the entertainment capital of the world, its success lies not in its rustic facades but in the people who continue to bring it life.