January 6, 2014 – Superstition Mountain Museum, Tortilla Flats and Organ Stop Pizza

After another brisk morning walk, where we spotted a lighthouse,

Saguaro cactus with a hole,

and organ pipe cactus which doesn’t know Christmas is over.

Debbie and I joined Dave and LaDonna for an extremely entertaining day.  Our first stop was at the Superstition Mountain Lost Dutchman Museum, located in the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

and along the Apache Trail at the former Apacheland Movie Ranch, at one time, the “Western Movie Capital of the World”. 

Although it never achieved the status its founder envisioned, for a period it did become a Western mecca, hosting the shooting of more than 17 television series, 29 full-length feature films and hundreds of commercials during its history.

The original “Elvis Presley Chapel” built for the 1968 filming of “Charro!”

 

the original Audie Murphy Barn built in 1960 was featured in two of Audie’s western movies filmed at Apacheland “Arizona Raiders” and “Time for Dying” and gallows on the museum grounds are all that remains after the second fire to sweep the sets in 2004.

A sampling of features filmed at the facility:

Movies:

·         1956 Gunfight at the OK Corral – Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas

·         1961 The Purple Hills – Gene Nelson, Kent Taylor

·         1961 The Broken Land – Jack Nicholson, Kent Taylor

·         1964 Blood on the Arrow – Dale Robertson, Martha Hyer

·         1964 Arizona Raiders – Audie Murphy, Michael Dante

·         1968 Hang Fire – Jerry Vance, Lindsay Crosby

·         1968 Charro! – Elvis Presley, Ina Balin

·         1969 Ballad of Cable Hogue – Jason Robards, Stella Stevens

·         1969 A Time for Dying – Audie Murphy, Richard Lapp

·         1972 Guns of a Stranger – Marty Robbins, Chill Wills

·         1976 The Haunted – Aldo Ray, Virginia Mayo

Made for Television movies:

·         1960 Apache Trail Documentary – Documentary of Superstition Wilderness

·         1962 Showdown at Redrock – Frank Wilcox, Leland Wainscott

·         1967 Ice Capades in the Desert – Carolyn O’Kelly, John Labrecque

·         1967 Pepsi’s ‘Girl on the Go’ – Corinne Calvet

·         1971 Second Chance – Brian Keith, Rosie Grier

·         1977 Sweet Savage – Aldo Ray, Charles Samples

·         1977 Jacob and Jacob – Alan Hale, Jake Jacobs

·         1978 Blue Jay Summer – Ken McConnell, Teresa Jones

·         1983 The Gambler: The Adventure Continues – Kenny Rogers, Linda Evans

·         1994 Blind Justice – Armande Assante, Jack Black, Elisabeth Shue, Robert Davi

·         1994 Playboy Goes West – Royce O’Donnell, Ed Birmingham, Hank Sheffer

Television series:

·         1960 Have Gun, Will Travel – Richard Boone

·         1961 Bonanza – Lorne Greene,  Michael Landon, Dan Blocker

·         1961 Stagecoach West – Wayne Rogers, Robert Bray

·         1965 Death Valley Days – Ronald Reagan

·         1965 General Motors – Lorne Greene

·         1966 Death Valley Days – Robert Taylor

·         1967 Dundee and the Culhane – Warren Oates, John Drew Barrymore, James Dunn

·         1967 Death Valley Days – Robert Taylor

·         1968 Will Rogers Institute – John Wayne

·         1968 Death Valley Days – Robert Taylor

·         1995 Ford Motor Company – Waylon Jennings

 Before wandering around, there is a stark warning …

 

After the last fire, many items were moved to the property, including an old stage coach,

and some mining equipment  … some of which gave us pause to wonder how it was moved from its location of manufacture to the barren lands of eastern Arizona.

Just up the road is Goldfield, an authentic ghost town (circa 1893) turned tourist site.

Continuing our drive north into the Tonto National Forest, the scenery became beautiful and far more colorful than we’d anticipated.

After passing Canyon Lake

we reached Tortilla Flats for lunch at the Superstition Saloon.

 

 

and some very comical art in the men’s room (the gals told us the décor in the ladies room was similar)

  We all had a great meal!

Tonight, we went for dinner at the Organ Stop Pizza restaurant.  Lest you think this is just another pizza joint, Its primary attraction is the home of what it claims is the largest Wurlitzer Theater Organ in the world.  

Powered by three turbine blowers (with a fourth as a standby) it has nearly 6,000 pipes.  

Many of the percussions (such as xylophones, glockenspiels, drums, triangles) as well as a honky-tonk piano  are installed high above the dining room for greater audience appeal.  The organist, Charlie Balogh, is originally from Trenton, NJ … just five miles from our home.  He is an incredible musician who seems to be able to play everything from classical, patriotic, rock, movie themes, Dixieland and a seemingly endless list of other genre on demand!

The pizza, while delicious, was almost an afterthought.