Pioneertown, California
Encyclopedia : P : PI : PIO : Pioneertown, California
Pioneertown, California is an unincorporated small town in the Morongo Basin region of Southern California in the United States approximately midway between Palm Springs and Joshua Tree.
The town started as a live-in Old West motion picture set built in the 1940s. A number of classic Westerns and early television shows were filmed in Pioneertown, including The Cisco Kid. Roy Rogers was one of the town's original developers, and Gene Autry frequently taped his show at the six-lane bowling alley, opened by Rogers in 1949 and still in operation today. School-age children were hired as pinsetter until the installation of automatic pinsetting equipment in the 1950s. Autry also had his own room at the Pioneertown Motel, today a Western-themed establishment with individually decorated rooms.
Pioneertown's facade has an exceptionally realistic look, right down to actual bullet holes in the signage and functional hitching posts for horses used in filming.
Mock gunfights are staged from April through October along Pioneertown's Mane Street (sic). By contrast, the town as well as the surrounding desert towns are home to a series of experimental art installations.
On July 11, 2006 a wildfire raced through Pioneertown.
References and external links
- Rafton, Louise. “Pioneertown”, Westways Magazine, March/April 2005
- [Official website]
- [High Desert Test Sites experimental art project]
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