Lone Pine in Inyo County, California — The American West (Pacific Coastal)

Lone Pine's 'Movie Man'

Photographed by Craig Baker, April 27, 2023

1. Lone Pine's 'Movie Man' Marker

Inscription. The story of movie-making in Lone Pine must include local rancher Russell Spainhower, who for years was Hollywood’s main contact man here. “We need 50 horses and 10 wagons next week,” they’d say and Spainhower would arrange it, plus help find locations and hire local riders for the posses. In 1938, he took remnants of the “Gunga Din” sets and built a permanent mission-hacienda set (later adding a western street) out at his Anchor Ranch, still operated by the family across 395 from the airport and the Best Western. The sets were seen primarily in Hopalong Cassidy and Tim Holt westerns. Spainhower, whose grandchildren and great-grandchildren still live in Lone Pine, often met with the movie-makers here at the Dow. “The studios really depended on him,” his daughter, Joy Anderson, remembers. “They got to know him over the years and they trusted him.”
That says it all.

Donated by the Lone Pine Film Festival
Dedicated June 1, 1996

Erected 1996 by Lone Pine Film Festival.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Arts, Letters, Music • Entertainment.

Location. 36° 36.242′ N,

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118° 3.739′ W. Marker is in Lone Pine, California, in Inyo County. It is on South Main Street (U.S. 395) just south of Post Street, on the left when traveling south. Marker is mounted at eye-level on the Historic Dow Hotel, just to the left of the front entrance, facing Main Street. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 310 South Main Street, Lone Pine CA 93545, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in California’s Sierra Nevada.

It is also in the American Mountain West.

Globally, it is in North America,

on the Ring of Fire,

in the Pacific Rim,

in the Western Hemisphere,

in the Western World,

and in the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once New Spain

and also Mexico’s Alta California.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within one mile of this marker, measured as the crow flies: The Duke and the Dow (here, next to this marker); The Adobe Wall (about 800 feet away, measured in a direct line); Lone Pine Film Museum (approx. 0.2 miles away); Wedding of the Waters Pageant (approx. 0.3 miles away); Mt. Whitney Pack Trains

Photographed by Craig Baker, April 27, 2023

2. Lone Pine's 'Movie Man' Marker

The marker is on the column at left.

(approx. half a mile away); Lone Pine Pioneer Cemetery (approx. 0.8 miles away); Fred French Family Oak (approx. 0.9 miles away); Disaster in 1872 (approx. one mile away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Lone Pine.

Also see . . . Lone Pine. Visiting the Movie Sites (Submitted on August 1, 2021, by Larry Gertner of New York, New York.)

The Dow Hotel image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 24, 2014

3. The Dow Hotel

Photographed by Craig Baker, April 27, 2023

4. Dow Hotel

Credits. This page was last revised on May 25, 2023. It was originally submitted on March 8, 2020, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This page has been viewed 1,249 times since then and 62 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on May 12, 2023, by Craig Baker of Sylmar, California. 3. submitted on March 9, 2020, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. 4. submitted on May 12, 2023, by Craig Baker of Sylmar, California.