Pioneer Town, where western history comes alive

 Pioneertown is known for its marvelous western facades, dirt main street, hitching posts, wooden sidewalks, and dozens of films, television series, and music videos that have been shot there over the decades.

From films like The Gay Amigo in 1949, and The Last of the Pony Riders in 1952, to more modern films such as The Gambler in 2014, and Ingrid Goes West in 2017, this modern-day ghost town has the perfect Old West ambiance.

Of course, two of my favorite music videos were shot there. The 2010, I Rep That West, by Ice Cube tops the list. Nothing better than a rapper riding into a hot dusty western town in a beautiful convertible lowrider surrounded by horses and townsfolk. Or, the 2016 hit by Cyndi Lauper, Funnel of Love, filmed in and around the town with a special appearance inside Pappy and Harriet’s.

The iconic Pappy and Harriet's in Pioneertown

A pink-haired cowgirl with a Brooklyn accent says it all when it comes to authentic Americana.

“Hey yuz guys,” Lauper may have said when finished with the filming. “Anyone know where I can get a friggin’ cannoli in these here parts?”

Of course, one film not listed among dozens is the one Laureen, my lovely wife, and I were in nearly ten years ago. We had bit parts about something to do with the West and a bunch of bad hombres - but when the film was completed and in the can, it never came back out.

I called my agent. “Look, Johnny Baby, the film was so bad that it was declared a national disaster. Find another career.”

“How about writing a travel column?”

A snicker came over the phone. “I’m sure that will pan out. Lose my number.”

Recently, I pulled on my Tony Lama lizard skin two-inch heeled cowboy boots, snugged up the emerald buckled three-inch wide belt through the loops of my Wranglers, knotted the bolo tie just right around the collar of my Rockmount shirt, donned my ten-gallon Stetson, and walked down the main street in Pioneertown.

Luckily it was very early in the morning and no one was around, or I may not have been able to escape with that outfit on.

Nope, Pioneertown revels in the realism of what life was like in the Old West days and did not need some big city dandy wandering around.

Back in the day, that would be right after the ending of World War II, a man by the name of Dick Curtis had a dream.

“I want to create a living, breathing movie set to shoot good Western movies,” he may have said.

In 1946, Curtis was able to wrangle 17 cowpokes to pony up the cash to fund the purchase of 32,000 acres of land just a few miles from the small town of Yucca Valley. Some of those involved included Roy Rogers, Bud Abbott, and others who bought into Curtis’s idea, and soon the place that would be known as Pioneertown was founded.

But, friends of Roy Rogers had wanted to name the place, Rogersville.

It is rumored that Roy himself said, “Rogersville, seriously? How about Evansplace?” 

To settle the matter, after a few rounds of arm wrestling, and a song written by Tim Spenser called ‘Out of Pioneertown,’ the eventual name of simply Pioneertown took hold.

A French couple was walking down Main Street and smiled at me while I tried not to topple over in the high-heeled boots I had worn. I could tell they were very excited about traipsing through such a rich movie history that Pioneertown offered.

The woman looked at her male companion and said in French, “Il a l’air ridicule.”

Since my French is very limited, I am sure she was talking about how every building along Main Street was very authentic and painstakingly constructed to resemble those that would have been found around the 1880s in the west of the United States.

I smiled and said, “Oui, oui.”

The male nodded and said, “C’est un idiot.”

Which I took as meaning what idiot would not want to visit Pioneertown while on holiday from a country boasting about eating snails and attending operas written by Ravel?

Pioneertown was not just a movie backdrop to film western films, it actually was a fully functioning community when completed in the late 1940s.

There was a grocery, a motel, the Red Dog Saloon (still in use today), restaurants, an ice cream store, a bowling alley (also still in use today), and other businesses that were functioning and making a profit - including a newspaper: the Pioneertown Gazette.

Lots of places for photo ops in Pioneertown

Non-movie types could purchase an acre of land with full utilities for as little as $900, which would be in today's dollars about a million buckaroos. 

Soon trouble was a-brewing for Pioneertown when in 1948 Dick Curtis stepped down as President of the corporation in protest over the decision made to cater more to Hollywood than to making Pioneertown a truly independent community.

In a rather strange set of realities, both the land sales and movie production dropped off until a producer by the name of Philip N. Krasne stepped up.

He was the bigwig producing the very popular television series, The Cisco Kid, starring Duncan Renaldo, which ran for six seasons.

Krasne saw the potential of Pioneertown. So much so that he signed a 25-year lease which again put the western town back on the map for both locals, tourists, and those cigar-smoking Hollywood big shots.

As I teetered through the town on this early morning, I was, as always, impressed at the care each structure along Main Street gets to ensure that anyone viewing the buildings truly believes they have traveled back in time. It is hard not to imagine this town was not a rootin' tootin' cow-punching, cow-poking sort of town.

Any moment I was expecting a drunk cowhand to exit the Red Dog Saloon, spit into the street, and grin at me.

“Hey, lookey,” he may have said. “We gots us a real live cow dude.”

Though it was early and nothing was open for visitors, there is a lot to offer while visiting Pioneertown.

Of course, there is the famous Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace which serves amazing food and drinks, as well as live music on various days of the week.

There is the Custom Leather and Saddle Shop where I actually did purchase a gun holster and belt in the years past. The Pottery Shop offers handmade pottery and a visitor can watch as these products are produced. There is an art studio where folks can dress up in historically accurate clothing for the time period and have their photograph taken.

And as mentioned, the Red Dog Saloon not only offers dining options but adult libations to boot. There is a large barn soundstage that can be rented out and occasionally offers live performances.

The Red Dog Saloon in Pioneertown

The main street offers photo opportunities galore for those who want to immortalize their visit and share on Instagram, Facebook, X, or whatever social media a person wants to utilize to show their friends and strangers they are in Pioneertown.

A perfect backdrop for western films at Pioneertown

There is the Bath House facade, the Jail facade, the Jack Cass Saloon facade, and many more for those picture-perfect moments. My favorite is the facade facade.

Pioneertown, a place for gunslingers

There is the Pioneertown Motel which offers plenty of rooms for those traveling for a night or two, as well as local Airbnbs to accommodate any traveler. And, there is camping available in the town itself.

With the beautiful mountains and valleys nearby, there is nothing but natural wonder surrounding Pioneertown - as well as the Joshua Tree National Park within half an hour's easy drive.

And of course, there is always entertainment awaiting the visit to Pioneertown on the weekends with old west shootouts along Mane Street.

What would be an old west town without hombres and sheriffs shooting the town up at scheduled hours for the tourists?

I’m sure my French friends in Pioneertown would have exclaimed, “Pas possible,” to that question.

For more information: https://visitpioneertown.com/

The Mining Town of Chloride, Arizona

Chloride, Arizona is known as the ‘Gem of the Cerbats.’ I had no idea what that even meant - the gem of anything to do with bats did not seem like a place anyone would want to visit.

I looked up potential dangers of hanging around with bats, especially upside down. There is the Salmonellosis disease which I think will make humans allergic to eating salmon. There is the Yersiniosis disease which will make humans say ‘Yer sister is a sissy’ too many times, and finally the Batasuarus disease which can make humans rather large and extinct.

Of course, I may have embellished those results, but still, it should not be taken lightly if bitten by an unwanted Chiroptera.

According to Deserae, the local fount of historical knowledge about the small town of Chloride who seemingly runs both the Mineshaft Market and the Arizona Visitors’ Center, the name comes from the minerals found in the nearby Cerbat Mountains.

This range runs for approximately 23 miles and is home to many of Arizona’s top producing silver mines from days in the past.

Ruins of one stamp mill in Chloride, Arizona

“Millions of dollars were pulled out of the mines located here in and around Chloride,” Deserae said. “We’re the only true living ghost town with over three hundred permanent residents and some of those mines are still producing ore today.”

I have learned in my travels, and some readers will tell me I’m wrong, that a ghost town generally has no one around, except ghosts, and no federal post office. Chloride actually has one of the longest running post offices in the state of Arizona. It opened in 1873, closed for a bit, and then reopened in 1893. It is still in operation today, and yes, I checked. 

On the left is the original post office in Chloride, Arizona

Sure enough, there is a poster with a handsome guy who looks a lot like me hanging on the left wall. ‘Wanted, for impersonating a travel writer. Reward $0, he ain’t worth it.’ Now, that’s a Post Office.

Silver Chloride, which the town is named after, has a long and confusing history. Long because it dates back to the ancient Egyptians and confusing because I have no idea what the brainiac chemical scientists are writing about. Let’s just say that so much silver was found in the nearby hills that a whole lot of people became rich and a town where nothing existed before.

History, like where I left my car keys, can be mystifying, so the story of when silver was found in present day Chloride plays in the same realm.

In 1860, six miners found silver in the Cerbat Mountains and began digging. That is what miners do, but the local natives did not take kindly to it. So much so that four of the miners were killed and two escaped west to seek help from the United States military.

Deserare pointed out on the map where two of the miners who were killed by the local Native Americans are buried just southeast of the Chloride cemetery. 

I paid a visit to the fenced off area of repose for the miners and said a prayer.

After the killings, the Cavalry arrived and peace was restored. Nope, not in the natives mind, but big mining diggings began anyway. 

By 1863, the town of Chloride was founded with over 70 mines in operation.

Chloride grew to be the largest town in Mohave County (that’s how it is spelled in Arizona) and was actually the county seat.

With a larger population, Chloride needed a jail

At its height, Chloride boasted over 2,000 residents, and where people reside they need the necessities of life. Soon there were five hotels, a bank, a pool hall, eight saloons, five restaurants, and four brothels, as well as six churches for all those who spent naughty time at the saloons, brothels, and maybe even the pool hall.

Yesterdays Restaurant and Saloon in Chloride, Arizona

Soon, a railroad spur was in place to transport the ore found in Chloride to Kingman and beyond. The train service also included passenger cars for locals, treasure-seekers, and the curious to visit this booming mining town nestled on the west side of the Cerbat Mountains.

Unlike many of these communities which dry up almost as quickly as they started, Chloride really only had a moment in its history of losing so many folks that it almost truly became a ghost town. During WWII many miners dropped their picks and shovels and picked up rifles and ammunition in the service of their country.

As the war ended, people started returning to Chloride but not just for mining, though there are still plenty of active mines in the area, but folks looked upon the small town as a haven from the ‘big city life’ and relished in the close knit community.

In fact, a lot of artists and musicians moved into the area to take advantage of the mild weather that Chloride had to offer and the beautiful landscape which can inspire such persons to wonderful creative moments.

I sat down for a moment on the exterior porch of The Thirsty Miner Soda Shop and Emporium located along North 2nd Street and started playing my harmonica. I felt inspired by the blue skies, wonderful vistas toward the mountains when suddenly the owner came out and smiled.

“Sorry,” she said. “I thought a cat got run over in the road.”

One true artist, not me, was Roy Purcell, a world renowned western painter who created marvelously brightly colored pieces of art depicting the beauty of the western scenery and way of life.

The late Senator Harry Reid once spoke of Purcell, saying ‘Purcell’s work reminds us of the mysticism of William Blake, the mastery of Michelangelo and the passion of Van Gogh - gifts he used with deep insight and compassion from the perspective of the ages yet with the poignancy of our own time and needs.’

And if proof of Purcell’s passion is needed, there is a section of rock murals laboriously crafted by the artist in the late 1960s on 2,000 feet of rock approximately one and a half miles east of Chloride along an easily maintained dirt road, appropriately named the Chloride Murals.

Roy Purcell's artwork near Chloride, Arizona

The images are those from Purcell’s vivid imagination and a great inscription painted along one of the murals is, “The Journey: Images From an Inward Search for Self.”

John R Beyer is search of a selfie

I sat upon a large boulder and did some searching of my inner self while viewing the murals. It did not last long, and I headed back to town - I was hungry and thirsty.

After quenching both at Yesterday’s Restaurant and Saloon, I wandered over to Cyanide Springs.

Cyanide Springs in Chloride, Arizona

Being a western town from the 1860s, Chloride offers a lot for tourists to engage in from gift shops, food and drink, museums, a visitor’s center, campgrounds, hotel accommodations, and regularly scheduled good-old-fashioned shoot-outs at Cyanide Springs.

Dead in the center of Chloride is a reconstruction of a section of the original town made with the wood collected from the nearby Golconda Mine and utilized by the locals to build the town of Cyanide Springs.

Actual timber from local mines to build the façade

Four actual miner’s cabins that were once used to house the families of some of the men working the mines are there in original shape, but now are occupied by gift shops and workshops for the maintenance needed on the structures. 

An actual theater, the Silver Belle Playhouse, is still in use, mainly for the Historical Society’s meeting place but can be used for various venues for the public.

I stopped by the Jim Fritz Museum which contains artifacts from Chloride’s heyday all the way back to the 1880s. Very interesting for anyone who finds learning things fascinating - and who doesn’t?

According to Deserae, “Our peak season is just starting and soon there will be hundreds of people visiting here each week, for a couple of hours or for a couple of days.”

As I drove out, I noticed the Chloride Western RV Park was pretty crowded and with the amount of vehicles parked in front of the Sheps Miners Inn, it may be hard already to book a room.

Chloride has a long history and the folks I bumped into were gracious, ready to share a story or two about the town, and truly seemed to love living in this not ghost town next to the Cerbat Mountains.

For more information: https://chloridearizona.info/