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Monument Valley will always be linked with film director
John Ford and Hollywood star John Wayne, who is recog-
nized with a cabin and icons at Goulding’s Lodge, left. The
valley’s iconic buttes appear to float atop a layer of fog in
this early-morning image, center. The three spires peaking
over the snow, right, are called “Three Sisters.”

The buttes are composed principally of red sandstone and selected the valley as his go-to setting for
and are the result of millions of years of continental westerns. Wayne believed it was he who steered Ford
upthrust and erosion, as tectonic forces drove the to Monument Valley, saying that he once rounded up
surrounding Colorado Plateau upward, then wind and some cattle in the area while working on another film
rain carved and chiseled the pillars. and was shown the valley by a local preacher. He later
These curious rock formations would have remained a suggested the location to Ford, but Ford never cor-
remote natural wonder if not for cinema. And the person roborated Wayne’s account. Ford told different stories
most responsible for that was the film director John of how he discovered the place, such as he chanced
Ford, who used the buttes and mesas as a dramatic upon Monument Valley himself while driving to Santa
backdrop. The first film he shot there was the classic Fe, or someone else introduced him to the area.
western “Stagecoach,” released in 1939, which was also The story most often repeated was told by the
John Wayne’s first starring vehicle. Ford eventually shot late Harry Goulding, who with his wife, Leone “Mike”
seven westerns in Monument Valley, all of which starred Goulding, operated a trading post within view of the
Wayne, forever linking the actor and the place. buttes. The Gouldings opened their trading post in
There are varying stories about how Ford discovered the 1920s, and when the Great Depression struck, the

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