‘Jurassic Park’ and 174 other films and pilots shot at Red Rock Canyon
Red Rock Canyon, about 40 miles northeast of Tehachapi in the Mojave Desert, is a place of spectacular eroded cliffs with colorful sedimentary layers. It has a rich geological, paleontological and cultural history. It is also one of the most filmed locations in this part of California, with at least 175 motion pictures and pilots that have included Red Rock Canyon footage.
The earliest known movie made at Red Rock was a silent film called “SageBrush Musketeers” in 1921. After 15 silent movies were shot there in the following years, “talkies” or films that included sound, began in 1929. Scores of movies followed, filmed in every succeeding decade, from the landmark “The Mummy” staring Boris Karloff in 1932 to more modern fare like “The Andromeda Strain” (1971), “Westworld” (1973) and the biggest of them all, “Jurassic Park” in September of 1992.
To celebrate this rich cinematic history, and the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Red Rock Canyon Interpretive Association, an event called Fossilmania was held last weekend, on Oct. 22.
In addition to booths with interpretive information set up at the Red Cliffs parking area, there were also two Saturday hikes to the location of the “Jurassic Park” filming. The sequence occurs early in the movie, when stars Sam Neill and Laura Dern are supposed to be at a paleontology dig in The Badlands, Montana. After some dig activity and Neill’s chilling explanation of the lethal capabilities of a velociraptor, the wealthy businessman who created “Jurassic Park” arrives in a helicopter to convince Neill and Dern to come to his island.
The hikes were led by Mark Jones, who is very familiar with Red Rock Canyon State Park and spent years in the film industry, and myself.
Mark provided movie and film making commentary and I offered insight into the natural and cultural history of the area, particularly in honor of the Nuwä, whose presence at Red Rock dates back thousands of years. The Nuwä called the area Aga-tibi-pa’ad, or Place of Red Rocks.
Among those present at the interpretive booths was Mark Faull, who retired after 20 years as head ranger at Red Rock Canyon, which became the first state park in Kern County when it was established in 1968. Faull has spent many years researching both the natural and human history of the area, and he knows more about Red Rock Canyon than anyone who has ever lived.
RRCIA president Carolyn Neipris-Jones and other volunteers organized the event and were on hand to provide information and assistance, as were state park rangers who are assigned to the area.
Also present was Richard J. Schmidt, who wrote a definitive volume called “A Field Guide to the Motion Picture Locations at Red Rock Canyon.” He said that his book is currently out of print, but new editions will be available soon.
Despite sometimes windy conditions, large groups of hikers participated in each of the two hikes. In the evening, at the outdoor amphitheater by the Visitors Center, there were presentations by UC Berkeley paleontology professor Dr. Jack Tseng and some of his graduate students about the work they are doing at Red Rock Canyon.
Each fall, Dr. Tseng leads fieldwork to find and excavate fossils from Red Rock Canyon.
Unlike the fictional dig site in “Jurassic Park,” these fossils are not dinosaurs but are primarily mammals from the Miocene epoch, which lasted from about 23 million years ago to about 5 million years ago.
Fossils found include 10 different species of camels, four species of horses, large cats including saber-toothed species, six different kinds of canids or dogs, two species of rhinos, strange elephant-like creatures called gomphotheres, and many others.
Getting back to the movies, why has Red Rock Canyon been so attractive to the film and television industry over the years? Because its superlative and varied scenery creates such a dramatic natural backdrop, whether the setting is supposed to be the Old
West, the Middle East, or even another planet, since many sci-fi films have been shot here — looking at you, “Rocketship X-M” (1950), “Radar Men from the Moon” (1952) and “Beneath the Planet of the Apes” (1969).
Since Red Rock Canyon is only 120 miles north of Los Angeles, it has been convenient for getting cast, crews and equipment to Red Rock for shooting and then back to Hollywood, without the adding expense of leaving the state or country. Faull was onsite monitoring during the filming of “Jurassic Park,” and he said that there was a crew of 120 people at work, with two days of set up and another three or four days of filming. Steven Spielberg helicoptered in each day, but everybody else drove.
From movies to television shows, from music videos to commercials, Red Rock Canyon has hosted an amazing number of film productions, and continues to this day, providing that production companies agree to state park protocols designed to safeguard the resources.
Now that the weather has cooled down, this is a great time to visit Red Rock Canyon State Park — a location cherished by filmmakers for the past 100 years.
Have a good week.