This is an exception. The reason I am allowing this one is that it is a well known historic place in Carson City, Nevada. It is on part of an official tour of mansions known as the "Kit Carson Trail" which is a tribute to the towns namesake. I am not going to list GPS coordinates for it, but there is a map on the official site that leads you right to it. Still, please be respectful when you go there. They have a radio broadcast you can listen to as you drive by. In fact, a John Wayne impersonator talks about the history of the house. Let me link the podcast here (right click and open in your browser) and you can listen to it as you look at my pictures.
The Shootist is probably my favorite John Wayne movie. In someways I feel like I am watching a tv movie they way it was done, but I like the story. Some of the inspiration for the original book was based on the end of the life of John Wesley Hardin, and if you have read this blog in the past you know he is the old west personality that I have spent the most time reading about. The importance of this movie is that it is the last movie John Wayne did. His character, J.B. Books, is dying of cancer like Wayne was. It was a nice movie to end his career on.
Here John Wayne is meeting up with Ron Howard in front of the Kreb-Peterson House.
Normally, I do not like to show really bad shady pictures like your going to get here. Trees are not the best things to reference compared to rock formations. Usually, trees die and are replaced over short periods of time. It turns out the three trees out in front are the same trees from the movie. The area is not as open, but the way the trees branch out from the base is the same.
Seeing how there is more tree coverage in the area there is a lot of shade. Since my time was limited the morning I did this I had to settle for less than ideal lighting conditions.
In the story, Wayne lives at this place and Lauren Bacall plays the owner and the mother of Ron Howard.
Most of it is the same now. The extended patio area looks like it was taken down. OH! See that little tree in the first picture that Wayne is riding towards? It looks like it has grown up!
One final thing is I do believe they did use the insides of this place to film the movie. What is odd is while facing the front here all you have to do is turn to your right and move a couple of homes down and you find the Nevada Govenor's Mansion. Here its podcast (right click and open in your browser).
I wanted to list one more of these mansions here. This is on the official register of Nevada's historical places. This is the Rinckel Mansion. You can listen to its podcast here.
There are a bunch of really nice places here. It is quite impressive to drive by them and check them out if you are not gambling your money away.
