Memories of Lago

 So today marks the 50th anniversary of the U.S. release of High Plains Drifter. It came out on April 19, 1973. Like a lot of movies, it did have a limited premiere release about two weeks before for a few cities, but I decided to use today's date as the official 50th anniversary. I started to prepare for this date about two years ago.

Yes, I had thought about another trip to Lago over the years. The pictures and video I took way back were good for the time, but over the years I told myself if technology improves where I can video the place at 4k and 60fps then I will do it again. Then during the pandemic period I watched a lot of blu-ray commentaries. One being High Plains Drifter with director and Italian western historian Alex Cox. It was after that I decided I need to get back to Lago, and another place that will be for some other time. 

There was a slight disappointment since the last time I had been here. When I came back during the summers of 2021 and 2022 some things had definitely changed. The dirt road has more sagebrush overgrowth on it now. 

You can definitely see it in my picture below compared to the movie picture. The main dirt road is still there, but the road one hikes to in order to get to Lago is missing. Well, sort of, I can see traces of it in my picture if I compare to the one above.

It used to be there was a sign warning people not to drive vehicles in that could not handle the dirt road there. I never drove in there since I have never had the vehicle that does it. I assume most people would not.

Here is what I was told. A bunch of people that did not have the proper 4WD off-road vehicle went in and were getting stuck in the area. So, the powers at be just blocked the road off. You can still hike in like I thought most people would do, but the issue is that now the sagebrush is growing all over the old dirt road.

So compared to what I was showing back around 2010-2012, the road through town is not as obvious.

Fortunately, as I was walking, I could tell where the dirt road through town was. The rocky tufa formation on the left is still there. It was a situation that you can tell when you are there, but it is not as obvious in my pictures.

So, this is another reason I am a little down on letting the public know exactly where certain areas are now. It is not like it used to be. All it takes is a few people to mess things up by being careless that it ruins it for everyone else. 

I say in the video it would be nice if some people got together to restore the dirt road for fans of the movie. I know that is not realistic these days, but you never know.

The video I think works, but the conditions were not what I had hoped for. Lots of clouds making it really hazy. 

Memories of Lago (Youtube)

With that out of the way I originally had planned a total of three videos to be released by around this summer. The second video I had put together was a "Silence of Lago" that used alternative footage. The third video was the same area as the video I call "Clint Spooks 'Em". The second video has the same hazy weather conditions as "Memories". So, I am putting that one off until I can go back on a different day. The third video will come out at some point, but I am not sure when that will be. So, I am not done with this area. 

This is the U.S. version of High Plains Drifter with the commentary I was talking about. It has the 4kHD and the regular Blu-Ray: HPD on Amazon.com.

For all my old blogs on this site click the label here. Please note it starts with the latest blog and goes all the way back as you scroll down: Mono Lake Clint Eastwood High Plains Drifter.

Music used in the video: 

"Western Streets" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The Return to Lago

As I was mentioning on Twitter last week, I can usually tell when certain movies have played on television. Whenever High Plains Drifter comes on this blog constantly gets hit. I think I have seen every search varation of "Where was High Plains Drifter filmed?"

This will be the third time I have discussed this locaton on this blog. I did not mean for it to be like this, but it has turned out to be an important place for a lot readers. I will link everything I have done below in the past here, but unless I find out something new this blog should wrap it up for good.

In fact, the only reason I am doing a new blog on this area is that the conditions were really different. Although I was the guide for this place that day, I had no control over the order of the areas we visited. I would have preferred to come here first with clear morning skies because this just happened to be the same day as what I showed in December. We visited another place to the south, and then we returned here. I was kind of disappointed because I had hoped to have clear blue skies for the video.

Then looking on the "bright" side of things I thought gloomy pictures of where Lago was in High Plains Drifter might actually turn out to be a good thing for the blog. This is looking to the west:
The following is at the beginning of where the town of Lago was in the movie. The set buildings would have been on both sides.
At the end of the town I turned around and looked back. The conditions started to lighten up at this point.
We then visited the lake. A bunch of seagulls were down there and what I call the "viking ship" in the distance.
Back in early December there was a lot of excitement over newly discovered "arsenic based life" here. Like I thought might happen when the hype was over with, a bunch of people examined the research and started poking holes in it. Until some show otherwise, it appears that it maybe back to the drawing board on this one. Or, more appropriate, keep searching.

Since it was important to me to have better conditions for the video I did come back a few days later. I will go ahead and link the video and other related links below:

The Return to Lago (Youtube Version)

The Return to Lago (Vimeo Version)

High Plains Drifter at Mono Lake (All three blogs on this area, including this one)

Clint Spooks 'Em (Youtube Version)

Clint Spooks 'Em (Vimeo Version)

Clint Spooks 'Em (My blog on the other HPD location nearby)

Regarding what I wrote up on the "alien life discovery" in December.

You can also check any of the labels on the right side that deal with Mono Lake and any other nearby area. I have often pointed out this area from up above elsewhere.

HPD: Clint Spooks 'Em Location

Halloweener #7

(GPS: N37° 55.510 W119° 02.540)

This is a case of a movie location that when you are there you know you are in the right place, but a lot of the area has changed over the years. I wanted to show this one because although a lot of people now know where "Lago" is from the movie they may drive right by this one. It just happens to be one of the best scenes in the movie. The area has changed since the movie was made. Some mining has taken place over the area that is probably the cause of the changes. Much like the dynamite Clint uses in this scene, it does look like it has been hit with explosives. The changes seem more from man than nature. I did the following video on October 31st, 2008:

Both times I was here I went without movie stills and just used my memory of how I remembered the scene. From looking at these pictures I would have to movie down and forward to match them up. The passage that the guy on the horse goes through to get to the outlaws is there, but in my picture does not seem like it due to the overgrowth. You should be able to match up the background features.
The outlaws are inside of the pit as I like to call it, and Clint is supposed to be "hiding" and planting dynamite in the distance over that hump.
As I said above, I know this is the exact same object from the movie, yet it does not really look the same.
Clint mysteriously appears on the other side. I said a bunch of times in the video that I was not sure if it was the very top (near the saddle) or in the middle of the following picture. Keep in mind a lot of what you see in this scene with the editing and camera work does not mean Clint was really up there. What it looks like they did was just add a lot of shots together to make it look like he was up here and the other side we started on.
My picture shows you more of the middle to the right side of the above picture. The movie pictures make this place seem like it was a lot bigger to me compared to when I was there.

As I finish up these last few entries on High Plains Drifter I wanted to include some quotes from Clint Eastwood on the location. The following is taken from Clint Eastwood: Interviews by Clint Eastwood, Robert E. Kapsis, and Kathie Coblentz (Mississippi University Press, 1999):

Quote #1 (Pgs. 100-101):

The interviewer says, "There is something of the infernal in the iconography of High Plains Drifter, a tonality of fire and scorched earth."

Clint Responds:
"That's due in part to the place where we filmed it, Mono Lake in California. The town in the script was situated in the middle of the desert, like in most Westerns, but this convention bothered me because even in the West a city couldn't develop without water. I discovered Mono Lake by chance, while I was out driving around, and I was immediately taken with the strangeness of the site. The saline content is so high that no vessel can risk going out on the waters of the lake. I spent two hours wandering around in the area. Not a boat, nor a living soul, only the natural noises of the desert. From the nearest city I immediately called my art director and had him jump on the first plane. When he arrived, he blurted out, 'you'd think you were on the moon!' I told him, 'It's a wierd place, but that's exactly what I want this story to be!'"

Quote #2 (P. 69):

"High Plains Drifter, basically a morality play, also benefits considerably, if not definitively, by the location, the Mono Lake district of northeastern California. The story was originally situated in Monument Valley, the grandiose site of so many John Ford films, but Eastwood says, 'that wouldn't have provided the same mood I got from the story. I needed a place that would correspond with the mood and Mono Lake is what I finally found. It's a dead lake. It has some very interesting outcropppings and the colors almost change moment by moment, so it gave the film and elusive quality."

I completely agree with the above quotes. To create this type of spooky western he went to the right spot to do it. Some of the traditional locations would not have worked as well. I would not say the location is the most beautiful of the places I go to, but it is a unique one for what is a very unique and special western. In the next blog entry I will do something on Panum Crator which is right behind this location.

Clint Spooks 'Em (Youtube Version)

Clint Spooks 'Em (Vimeo Version)

High Plains Drifter Location at Mono Lake

Halloweener #6

(GPS: N37° 56.710 W119° 02.450)

This is an area I have covered before. Normally, I do not like to rehash the same areas in my blog, but this is one of those areas that I tend to get occasional e-mails about so I thought I would update it. I am keeping the original blog up and linking this new blog entry in it. Those pictures and blog reflect a period of about 10 years ago when I was not as "hardcore" about movie locations and knowledge of how to find them as I am now. There were some simple mistakes I made in that blog that I hope to correct in this one. Keep in mind I have visited and lived many summers near Mono Lake from as far back as I can remember. I always knew the movie was made there, but it would be like, "Oh, High Plains Drifter was made just over there." Then, "That's nice. Let's get out here because it is so hot at the South Tufa!"

In this blog I want to add some other tidbits about the area that you might not pick up in the movie or even if you went to the location. In this first video I mention Mt. Dana. It is seen in the movie and my video a few times when the looking west. Here is a zoom of it. At first glance, especially in the video and movie, the mountains look connected. This picture should help show it a little better from down below from the east. It is in the very back there. There is a another smaller mountain in front of it from this point of view. When the video was made I had climbed Mt. Dana from the eastern road entrance of Yosemite. From the popular route it is a 3,000 foot climb that takes a few hours to get to the 13,000 foot elevated summit. A future blog will cover the video, pictures, and my story of that hike.

In the movie, this the first shot we get of the town of "Lago" in the movie.
I hiked up the hill to get a close enough shot for our purposes. This is not exactly where the camera was in the movie. The way I know this is that you have to line up the mountain peaks in the background with some of the features of the island out there. Long story short, there were some issues with sun and my cheap equipment. To avoid glare I just stayed here rather than move more to the north west (probably a few hundred feet or so to the left of my picture from what I can tell). With something like this I am just trying to get the general "feel" of the location rather than be obsessed with the exact location. So, this should get the job done for our purposes.
The hill I walked up is like walking up an incline of beach sand. Of all the terrain I hate walking on, it would be scree infested mountain peaks. Two steps forward and then one step back, or one step forward and two steps back. It did not take too long, but after climbing Dana I wanted to get this short little incline hike out of the way as soon as possible without sweating too much from the now warming sun. Of course, I always get sand in my shoes from stuff like this. Now check this out:

There are a lot of chunks of obsidian out there. This one was a pretty good size chunk. There are a lot of crators nearby that have had volcanic activity in the past. I visited one that I will do a video and pictures for soon. So, you will be seeing a lot more obsidian in the near future. Clint comes down from the hill and takes the road you see from the above pictures down to the town. Again, close enough for our purposes here. The main thing I wanted to do this time was be sure I got most of the background right. The following is where the town begins. You can see the rocky formation where my backpack is at that you see Clint ride by. It is obviously decayed over the years. When I was here ten years ago something did not feel right about to me. Keep in mind I was doing this off of memory rather than take movie stills. I expected it to look just like you see in the movie. I said some stuff in the video about it being level in the movie, but I am not so sure about it looking at it now. Movies, pictures, and then actually seeing it there can give you three different views about it. All I can say is there is enough there to know it is what you see in the movie, but it has changed. As I have mentioned in the video and blog a bunch of times I always look for the rocks because they tend not too change very much and are usually the key to the locations.
I mention in the video there is, what I assume, a tufa rock formation that you can see extending from the land in the movie and then you see one of those rocks remaining these days. Here is a zoom that makes it look like a viking ship.
The following is one of the pieces of wood you can find there. As I mention in the video, something like this could be remains from the movie set. I have seen pieces of wood from sets that are still around after almost 70 years. So, that really isn't an issue. However, I would caution someone from looking at the piece of wood below and saying they are certain it is from the set of High Plains Drifter. The reason being is I have seen wood and charred wood not only here, but in other areas around Mono Lake, not to mention other nearby areas. There are a lot of reasons you might find wood like this here that may not have anything to do with the movie. Usually, most productions are required to pick up all set pieces at the end of the filming. Keep this in mind, not just for this movie, but any time you see someone declare something is from some movie set. I will list some further links below about Mono Lake if you want more information. One thing I mentioned in the second video is about the Daly gang of Aurora. I refer you to Roger McGrath's Gunfighters, Highwaymen, & Vigilantes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984) chapter 5 which gives you the history of how the outlaw gunfighers took over the town of Aurora. Aurora is on the other side of the lake behind the mountains in the above pictures. It was a major mining area during the early 1860's. There is not much there these days, and the reasons for that is another story for another time. But, this is one of those things that people that have seen the movie or even visited the location may not know the coincidental history of the area.

You should read the chapter, but long story short, the gunfighters took over the town. Like a lot of gunfighters of the old west, no one really cared if they killed each other or other undesirables, but once a well thought of citizen was killed then mobs formed. One of the members of the Daly gang, with the last name of Buckley, was caught not very far from this location. He was taken back with the gang, and there they received death by a slight elevation change in Aurora (they were hanged).

Now, this is not the exact same story as High Plains Drifter, but some of the same ideas about revenge, the take over of the town, and even a few tidbits of the supernatural are involved in the story. So, even though one is fiction and the other real history, whenever I see High Plains Drifter or read that chapter about the Daly gang I feel like they are very much related. Please take a look at that chapter and tell me what you think after you read it. The book is a good read about the ghost towns of Bodie and Aurora, as well as, the Owens Valley War of the 1860's. McGrath deserves a plug for his old book so here it is. :)

The Return to Lago (Youtube Version)

The Return to Lago (Vimeo Version)

A few links:

Monolake.org

Mono Lake Wikipedia Article

Some old blogs that give different views of Mono Lake:

Mono Crack

Awesome View of Mono Lake

Click here for all the blogs I did on this location.

High Plains Drifter

(GPS: N 37° 55.630 W 119° 01.370)

(EDIT (2/6/11): this location has been updated. This blog entry is very old so make sure you see the rest of blogs and video I did on it. Please click the tag below or this link to get all three blogs I did on this location. Also, be sure to check out Clint Spooks 'Em too.)

I have posted some unique pictures of Mono Lake in another entry. Unique in the sense they are from a different angle and high point than one normally sees of the lake. Go HERE for those.

Years ago my brother and I went looking for the town of "Lago" where the movie High Plains Drifter was exclusively filmed. Admittedly, since we did this long before I really started looking for old movie locations these pictures are close, but not as close as I could do today. One of these days I might go back and see if I can be a bit more precise on these. In fact, the gps coords above don't get you to the pictures below. They get you to the Navy Beach plaque which leads you to the South Tufa of Mono Lake. You then follow the road and head more to the north or northwest along the lake.

As a side note, Navy Beach was where the U.S. Navy did some top secret experimental work during the cold war era. It closed down in 1962. There is a tour of the wildlife nearby. Okay, to the pictures:

At the beginning of the movie, Clint rides down from the background (that's actually were the gps coords are at). You will notice in the following picture I have about 1/3 of the movie picture. If you compare the left hand side you can match up about 1/3 of it.
Mono Lake has a history of different water levels. I do not think the town where "Lago" appeared in the movie has had any issues of water reaching it. I could be wrong though. You can see the two main islands in this lake. I have not seen Fair Wind to Java with Fred MacMurray, but to this day those islands are referred to as Krakatoa and Java due to that movie being filmed here. In location hunting these days I would take the above picture above to the site and probably head to my left (north) to line up the mountain peaks in the background with the islands, thus, getting a more precise shot. Also, I need to be higher behind me.
Another shot nearby. One thing about Mono Lake is that during the summer it is very hot. The general rule of thumb that I go by is any lake to the east of the 395 is going to be a fire lake. Usually very dry and not very much fun. I was there last year hiking the northern side to some caves. I was glad I did it early in the morning because by the time I finally reached my truck I was dying for water. It is a desert area regardless of the salt water you see. Remember, Clint did turn the town of "Lago" into "Hell" for a reason. ;)
Again, Clint is just arriving in town.
I am not really sure about this, but you can see the piece of land that darts out into the water in the background. It is possible my picture below is a trace of that.
When the outlaws get out of jail they show up from the south to southeastern side of the lake. Close to where you see the first two pictures above. This movie is interesting to me because they filmed almost every scene here, but all the indoor sets appear to have been made and filmed here too.

The Return to Lago (Youtube Version)

The Return to Lago (Vimeo Version)