Sandstone boulders the size of houses rise over horse properties and industrial parks, the same rocks Stagecoach used as the open frontier.
What Chatsworth looks like
Sandstone boulders the size of houses break through the hillsides at , stacked and rounded above dry brush along Topanga Canyon Boulevard. More than 150 climbing routes run up the rock faces, and a Metrolink and Union Pacific line skirts the base of the formations on its way into the station downtown.
Farther from the rocks, cul-de-sac streets carry stucco ranch houses and Spanish style houses built around the same exposed boulders, with horse properties and small stables behind chain link fences. , a two storey redwood barn on Devonshire Street, has a Keep Out sign and a woodpile stacked against its sliding door. The cottage, a Stick-Eastlake bungalow from 1911, sits behind its own picket fence on a shaded lot at the foot of the hills.
Blank walled warehouses and loading yards line Eton Avenue and De Soto Avenue on the valley floor, among them the low white building that houses , a company that casts skeleton replicas behind unmarked glass doors. , a Googie style hamburger stand from 1956, still serves customers a few blocks from the . A mockup of a Saturn V rocket engine stands in a parking lot near the site on De Soto Avenue.
Shot in Chatsworth
Fox built a complete Indian village and a military parade ground among these rock formations for Wee Willie Winkie in 1937, after labor disputes forced the production off its own studio lot. The same rocks played the frontier again two years later in Stagecoach.
Stagecoach, 1939
Played Apache Wells Outpost, 1880s frontier
The Apache Wells Outpost gate and adobe wall stood among these rock clusters, with the Indian Head and Sphinx formations visible behind them. The Lee's Ferry burned station set stood nearby, near the rock that climbers call Batman Rock.
What Chatsworth can double for
Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park in Agua Dulce, California
Vasquez Rocks is the same kind of sandstone country, used for the open frontier and for other planets on screen. The rocks there are tilted into jagged uplifted slabs rather than Chatsworth's rounded boulders, a difference a wide shot makes obvious. Keep the tilted rock layers out of a shot meant to match Chatsworth's more rounded boulders, and favor closer framing on individual rocks instead. Try searching tilted sandstone rocks now.
Joshua Tree, California
Joshua Tree's granite boulders round in a similar way to Chatsworth's sandstone, though the open high desert around them runs far wider than the city's hillsides. Horse properties sit at the edge of both towns in much the same way. Joshua trees and yucca in the middle distance would need staying out of frame, since neither grows in the San Fernando Valley. Try searching granite boulders now.
