Brackettville

Back in January, Jerry and I decided to take a day trip. We drove 2 1/2 hours from San Antonio and visited a place called Brackettville. It's a small town in west Texas that is barely a bump on the road. It was a nice, almost desolate drive from San Antonio. Many places reminded us of our drives in California. The scenery is similar of the central coast. A touch of farm land mixed in with desolate desert and sagebrush. It's almost a mixture of land around Fresno and Mojave jumbled together. The day was beautiful. We left San Antonio when it was cloudy and in the low 60s to Brackettville where it cleared up to blue skies and high 60s.

We drove seven miles outside of Brackettville to a destination knowns as Alamo Village. What is Alamo Village and why were we visiting it? It's a huge, movie set that still is active today. It was originally constructed, basically in the middle of nowhere, for and by John Wayne. He had a movie he really wanted to make, "The Alamo," which also starred Richard Widmark. They started building it in 1957, and finished two years later, and in 1959 they started filming the movie.

This place is not just false-fronted buildings normally seen on movie sets, this is is a complete town. More than a million and a quarter adobe bricks were made and used. They used 12 miles of water pipes and 30,000 square feet of Spanish roofing tiles. Part of the site has a replica of the Alamo from 1830s. They also built a Mexican town from the 1830s that has a jail, saloon, general store, stables, church, cemetery, bank and blacksmith shop.

This was the first movie set built in Texas. It is stocked with stagecoaches, wagons, surreys, cannons, props and set dressings. This year they are celebrating their 50th anniversary. Apparently, they are going to have recreators wandering around in full costume, ranchers will bring cattle and horses, offering trail rides around the ranch and more.

Since it was January, only a handful of visitors were at the site. It was peaceful, quiet and scenic. If I were going to make my own western movie, I'd definately check this place out. Or, if I wanted to do Western themed photos of my family, this is the place. There's not much going on around it, it's quiet. No amusement rides, fudge shops or the rest.

They have filmed more than 100 movies, documentaries and music videos at Alamo Village. Some, I'm sure you've all seen.

Movies
1951 Arrowhead - Charlton Heston
1955 The Last Command - Ernest Borgnine
1958 Five Bold Women - Irish McCalla
1959 John Wayne's "The Alamo"
1960 The Spirit of the Alamo (TV) - NBC
1960 Roy Rogers Show (TV)
1960 John Ford's - Two Rode Together - Jimmy Stewart
1966 Top Hand (TV)
1967 Aye, That Pancho Villa (TV)
1967 Bandolero - Dean Martin
1968 Children's West (Lon Chaney, Jr.) (TV)
1973 A Death in Tombstone
1974 The Texas Ballad (KLRN-TV)
1978 Adventures of Jody Shanan
1978 Centennial, "The Longhorns" (TV) - Dennis Weaver
1979 Code of Josey Wales - Michael Parks
1980 Barbarosa - Gary Busey
1980 Seguin (American Playhouse) - Edward James Olmos
1981 "Kathleen" Kestrel Films
1982 Tennessee to Texas - A Musical Affair (TV) - Tanya Tucker
1984 Up Hill All The Way -Burt Reynolds
1986 Houston - Legend of Texas (TV) - Sam Elliott
1986 The Alamo - Thirteen Days To Glory (TV) - Alec Baldwin
1986 No Safe Haven - Wings Hauser
1987 Alamo: Price of Freedom - Caser Biggs
1988 Lonesome Dove (TV) - Robert Duvall
1989 Gunsmoke - The Last Apache (TV) - James Arness
1991 JCV Japanese Quiz Show (TV)
1991 American Movie Classics (TV - Bob Dorian
1992 Rio Diablo (TV) - Travis Tritt
1992 Travis Smith (direct to video)
1993 Bad Girls - Madeleine Stowe
1994 Gambler V (TV) - Kenny Rogers
1994 James A. Michener's, "Texas" (TV) - John Schneider
1994 Good Old Boys (TV) - Sam Shephard
1995 Streets of Laredo (TV) - James Garner
1995 A&E History Channel's "The Alamo" (TV)
1995 Discovery Channel's - "The Battes of the Alamo" (TV)
1995 PBS - Ken Burns "The West" (TV)
1995 A&E Biography - "Davy Crockett: American Frontier Legend" (TV)
1995 The Learning Channel's - "Famous Battles" - Alamo Segment (TV)
1995 Discovery Channel's - Buffalo Soldiers" (TV)
1996 Once upon A Time In China and America - Sammo Hung
1999 Alamo... The New Defenders (direct to video)
1999 The Bullfighter - Domineca Scorcese
1999 The History Channel's - "Haunted San Antonio" (TV)
2000 Jericho - Mark Valley - Leon Coffee - Buck Taylor
2001 The History Channel's "History vs Hollywood" (TV)
2002 "Westown" Sturghill Productions
2006 Blue Eyes - Walker Cable Productions
2006 Mexican Gold - Walker Cable Productions
2007 The Man Who Came Back - Walker Cable Productions - Eric Braden - Billy Zane
2007 - Friend of The Devil (TV Pilot)

Music Videos

1980 Willie Nelson - "Tougher Than Leather"
1995 Brooks & Dunn - "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone"
1996 Gary Hobbs - "Corazon de la Ardiente"
1996 La Tropa F - "The Sheriff"
1996 "Los Palominos"
1999 Shade of Red - "Revolution"

Here are some photos we took: