Golden Oak Ranch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Walt Disney Company’s Golden Oak Ranch is a outdoor ranch that serves as a interior and exterior filming site. The ranch on Placerita Canyon Road in Newhall, California, less than an hour north of Los Angeles. To reach the ranch, travel north from Los Angeles on Interstate 5. Continue onto Route 14. Take the Placerita Canyon Road exit and turn right. The ranch’s entrance is about two miles ahead, on the left.
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[edit] History
The ranch was named in honor of gold that an 1849 gold prospector, Francisco Lopez, discovered beneath an oak tree while he was gathering wild onions. Walt Disney bought the 315-acre ranch in 1959 for $300,000. Over the years, thanks to additional purchases of adjacent land needed to prevent the sights and sounds of modern life from intruding upon the movies shot at filming locations on the ranch, the area of the ranch increased to 691 acres. Two live-in groundskeepers, Pat Patterson and Jesus Guerrero, maintain the ranch.
[edit] Description
According to "The Golden Oak Ranch: Disney's Western Frontier," an article in a 1983 Disney Newsreel, "several houses and barns, a lake with a covered bridge, sprawling meadows, majestic oak trees, creeks, and water falls" make it "a virtual dreamland for almost any outdoor filming need." The ranch is one of the few remaining movie ranches, serving the cinematic needs both of Disney Studios and its competitors.
[edit] Motion pictures and TV shows filmed at the ranch
The ranch was used to film the episodes of Spin and Marty, a popular segment of The Mickey Mouse Club. The first movie shot at the ranch was Toby Tyler. The town featured in Roots II was also built on the Golden Oak Ranch. Segments of Pete’s Dragon were shot on this location as well, as were The Apple Dumpling Gang, Treasure of Matecumbe, The Muppet Movie, The Electric Horseman, Little House on the Prairie, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Colonel Sanders commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken. A covered bridge spans the man-made stream featured in Follow Me, Boys! and episodes of Bonanza and The Greatest American Hero.
