Warbird Information Exchange

Okay, this is an odd one...
The other day I was watching the late '60s-early '70s TV western The High Chaparral on DVD. In a audio commentary, an actor mentioned they filmed parts of several episodes at Ryan Field...The series exterior locations were filmed at nearby Old Tucson studios.

I believe the scenes he was referring to were long chase scenes where bad guys were chasing good guys on horseback or wagons.
The area is semi-cleared of brush, trees, cactus and large stones but is still unpaved. The cameras were presumably mounted on trucks but given the technology of the day (no steadycams, and the shots are too low for helicopters) I figure the camera trucks had to be on smooth pavement for steady shots.

So back then did Ryan Field have wide unpaved areas paralleling the runway?

I have seen some old photos in books that show the field, it was home for an aircraft modification firm (which I don't recall the name of) that did contracts for the Air Force and the airport looked pretty rural back then, unlike today's satellite photos.

I know it's a long shot but does anyone know more?

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https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer

Type in Ryan Field, AZ, then Click on aerials, then click the year that you want.
You can use your mouse to drag the map around, scroll wheel will zoom in/out.

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45-47=-2

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45-47=-2

Oh thanks Mike, I can see a lot of winter evenings being spent staring at historic aerials of American airports...

What a fantastic resource!

What a cool tool! Might be a nice companion to Abandoned and Little-Known Airfields site..Thanx Mike!!

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John: Temporary narrow gauge rail tracks have also been used for low angle, high speed runs with little or no camera movement. I’ll see if I can find some photos or video when I get home.