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Dennis Begin
Redemption Saloon used in the movie The Quick and the Dead.
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Patricia Begin
Mescal Stage Line. Blown up in the Quick and the Dead.
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Dennis Begin
Home of Wyatt Earp.
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Dennis Begin
In front of these hotel doors, Virgil Earp gave Doc Holiday the shotgun used in the shootout.
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![This vacant lot was used in the Shootout at the OK Corral [Tombstone movie]. Guide Frank Brown and his cat Sam point out how the shootout took only 30 seconds.](https://suncruisermedia.com/downloads/21154/download/mescal-frank-brown-3906-2%5B1%5D.jpg?cb=69d4ea887844c05d184edc5ca99666f1&w={width}&h={height} "This vacant lot was used in the Shootout at the OK Corral [Tombstone movie]. Guide Frank Brown and his cat Sam point out how the shootout took only 30 seconds.")
Photo courtesy of Old Tucson Studios
This vacant lot was used in the Shootout at the OK Corral [Tombstone movie]. Guide Frank Brown and his cat Sam point out how the shootout took only 30 seconds.
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Patricia Begin
Building was a schoolhouse used in the TV Series, Little House on the Prairie.
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Dennis Begin
Fort/Barracks used in the movie, The Buffalo Soldiers
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Dennis Begin
Sheriff's Office and jail used in the movie Tom Horn.
Words by Dennis Begin
What do the Harlem Globetrotters and Playboy Bunnies have in common? A strange question, but the answer is that both have visited the largely unknown Mescal Movie Set. Southwestern Arizona, known as ‘cowboy country', is immortalized by the Old Tucson Studios. This western movie set was built in 1939 by Columbia Pictures, for a movie called Arizona. Other films followed, with 215 movies and 28 TV series filmed on this location. John Wayne, one of the most popular actors, filmed four movies at the Old Tucson Studios. By the 1960s, the Old Tucson Studios had evolved into a movie studio and a western-themed park for tourists. Today there are a lot fewer movies made here, having moved to less commercial locations such as Mescal, Arizona. If you have never heard of Mescal, you are not alone.
Building Mescal
Mescal is just under 10 km (six mi) west from Benson, Az. on I-10. Exit 297 and drive approximately 6.5 km (four mi) north on the Mescal Road and look for the sign. Mescal is the sister studio of the Old Tucson Studios, who acquired the property in 1969 from the CBS Network when they needed a suitable site for two new TV series. Mescal looks like a western town of the 1880s, surrounded by the Sonoran Desert with the Rincon Mountains in the background. Close your eyes and you can imagine Clint Eastwood riding across the desert. Over the years, movie companies such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer have constructed new buildings when needed. Many buildings are more than just a façade, some will have four frontal sides, and be used in four different movies. Most buildings have multiple uses. In the movie Tombstone, the Oriental Saloon was used for gambling scenes as well as a pool hall where Morgan Earp was shot in the back. The Bird Cage Theater and Wyatt Earp's house are copies of the real buildings in Tombstone. Other buildings are locked to store paint cans, ladders and furniture, waiting for the carpenters and actors to return.
Movies
Two movies made Mescal famous, Tombstone (1993) and The Quick and the Dead (1995). If you have watched these movies, the hotels/saloons are easy to identify. Wyatt Earp made Tombstone famous for the 1881 Shootout at the O.K. Corral. In The Quick and the Dead, Sharon Stone kills Gene Hackman in a gunfight in front of the Redemption Saloon.
Some of the 50 movies filmed in Mescal include The Buffalo Soldiers, Maverick [opening hanging scene], The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean and even a horror flick called Ghost Town. The most famous TV series are The Young Riders and Little House on the Prairie. Movie stars who have performed here include Frank Sinatra, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Danny Glover, Russell Crowe, Kurt Russell and Leonardo DiCaprio, just to name a few. The last movie filmed at Mescal was Hot Bath an' a Stiff Drink [2014].
Walking Tour
Mescal is not a museum, nor is it open to the public on a daily basis. The movie set only opens on some weekends from February through April. It is best to check with the Old Tucson Studios [520-883-0100] for available dates. The caretaker of Mescal, Frank Brown, is a historian, actor, sheriff and tour guide, accompanied by his black cat, Samantha. Frank conducts a one-hour walking tour, pointing out which buildings were used in what movies and shares delightful stories about the actors. The tour costs $10.00 (USD). Over the past twenty plus years, Frank has also appeared as an extra in several western movies. As for the gun on his hip, it appears to be real!
Mescal was not built as a permanent structure and, as a result, cannot be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Many of the buildings are unsafe to walk through, the wooden sidewalks are full of holes, there is no electricity or bathroom facilities and cattle are allowed to walk around the town leaving their droppings. Mescal is deteriorating and in need of a facelift. Of course, if you are a movie buff, none of these inconveniences really matter. It is just fun to walk in the footsteps of these famous actors and escape into a fantasy world of the Old West.