| Pioneertown, California | |
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| — Unincorporated village — | |
| Saloon, bank, bath house and livery stables on Mane Street, Pioneertown, CA | |
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Pioneertown, California
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | San Bernardino |
| Population (2006) | |
| • Total | 350 |
| Time zone | Pacific (PST) (UTC-8) |
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
| ZIP codes | 92268 |
| Area code(s) | 760 |
| FIPS code | |
| GNIS feature ID | |
| Website | Official website |
Pioneertown, California is an unincorporated village in the Morongo Basin region of Southern California's Inland Empire Metropolitan Area. It is located approximately 56 miles (90 km) east of San Bernardino.
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The town started as a live-in Old West motion picture set, built in the 1940s. The movie set was designed to provide a place for the actors to live, and at the same time to have their homes used as part of the movie set.[1] A number of Westerns and early television shows were filmed in Pioneertown, including The Cisco Kid and Edgar Buchanan's Judge Roy Bean. Roy Rogers, Dick Curtis, and Russell Hayden were among the original developers and investors, and Gene Autry frequently taped his show at the six-lane Pioneer Bowl bowling alley. Its construction was credited to one "A.E. Thompson" in 1947 and Rogers himself rolled out the first ball in 1949. School-age children were hired as pinsetters until the installation of automatic pinsetting equipment in the 1950s. According to the Morongo Basin Historical Society, the bowling alley is one of the oldest in continuous use in California.
Mock gunfights are staged from April through October along Pioneertown's Mane [sic] Street.
The town as well as the surrounding desert towns are home to a series of experimental art installations.[2]
It is easily accessed via Pioneertown Road at California State Route 62 in the town of Yucca Valley. The gently winding, four-mile (6km) drive northwest to Pioneertown has been designated a California Scenic Drive.
The ZIP Code is 92268, and the community is inside area code 760. As of 2006, the town of Pioneertown had a population of 350. [3][4]
On July 11, 2006 some of Pioneertown was burned in the Sawtooth Complex fire, which also burned into Yucca Valley and Morongo Valley.[5] Firefighters managed to save the historic movie set buildings, but much of the surrounding desert habitat was damaged.[6] Among the buildings saved was Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace, a longtime local club and landmark built within one of the original sets and which counts notable musicians among its regular patrons, among them Eric Burdon. Pioneertown, is also the home of famous artist and set designer, Edward Grimm. Many of his works exist in town to date.
*Rafton, Louise. “Pioneertown”, Westways Magazine, March/April 2005
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