Hazzard Square

[roy1elvis]

My aunt and uncle live in a small Kentucky town -- it's dry! They run a laundromat/tanning salon!!

[Alex-Dukes]

I found the site Panoramio where the locations was filmed the series television The Dukes of Hazzard in the episode High Octane.

Here's the links:

Dukes of Hazzard - High Octane: Dept.of Environmental Protection (filmed at Rockdale Hospital)

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2657408

Dukes of Hazzard - High Octane: Green Ford ripped open with steel teeth

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2657110

Dukes of Hazzard - High Octane: intersection where Rosco searches Jesse's car

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2656110

Dukes of Hazzard - High Octane: Forest road block & arrest scene

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2657076

[Monster01]

Hey guys not sure if this was mentioned before but, the Hallmark movie "Season for Miracles" was filmed where Hazzard Square was filmed in California. I was watching it last night and I noticed the church and the bank, a couple houses where I think one was Boss Hogg's house. In the movie there are two sisters who make the main character and her niece and nephew feel welcome to town. Where the two sisters live I believe is to be Boss Hogg's House. I recognized the inside. And I believe there are a few shots of the outside. It is a good movie. I might be able to get some still shots in the near future.

[HossC]

It's been a while since I added to this thread. That doesn't mean that I've been resting on my proverbial laurels. The next few posts concern the area around Lake Sherwood that was used extensively in early seasons. In many cases they filmed on public roads rather than private ranches. I'll start with this building that's visible in several episodes (seen here in 'Arrest Jesse Duke' from season 2).

I thought I'd found the right building while looking around Lake Sherwood on Google Maps, but the road layout didn't seem to fit. After more research I found that the north-western corner of the lake had been re-designed in the early '80s, around the time that the lake was drained. The road layout was changed when East Potrero Road was cut through the hill on the north side of the lake. This confirmed that I had the right building, which turned out to be Engine 33 of the Ventura County Fire Department. On the map below you can see how the area looked in 1980 and how it looks now (the fire station is roughly in the center). Click here to see how the fire station itself looks today.

This picture is the view down Stafford Road, which used to start opposite the fire station.

This is the old West Potrero Road looking almost due west from the fire station. I'll return to East and West Potrero Roads in later posts.

[HossC]

One last picture of the fire station. This one is taken from 'The Late J.D. Hogg', and shows the fire station dressed as garage (competition for Cooter maybe?). It's the end of the scene where Cletus steps on a wheeled board and skates down the hill, ending up in the water just to the right of this pictute. The start of that stunt is filmed in an entirely different location, which I'll cover soon.

The previous post mentioned the new, western end of East Potrero Road. At the eastern end is the intersection (below) where it joins South Westlake Boulevard/Decker Canyon Road (Highway 23). This road featured in several episodes (this picture is from 'Uncle Boss'). Looking at the aerial maps from 1980, this area has changed very little. There's actually a large number of houses behind the camera - see for yourself here.

This picture is taken on East Potrero Road, just to the right of the previous one. I can't remember which episode this is grabbed from, but I think it was near the start of season 2. Again the road is still quite recognizable - the trees have grown a bit, but the overhead wires are still the same.

The last picture of this post is another from 'Uncle Boss'. It's taken just south of the previous two pictures on Decker Canyon Road. The fencing on the left surrounds Lake Eleanor, which can be seen as Hughie's VW drives by, seconds after this picture was taken. I could only get a really blurry grab, so didn't think it was worth posting. As far as I can tell, the camera must have been somewhere near here. If you click on the link and spin around to face the other way you'll see there's now a sign that says 'Speed Checked by Radar' - we all know it's just a hair dryer!.

[RogerDuke]

You amaze me with this stuff Hoss.

And BTW congratulations on your 2000th post!

[Brian Coltrane]

Great info, Hoss! I don't know how you figure this stuff out, it never fails to impress me!

[Alex-Dukes]

Mr. Hoss is a genius!

[HossC]

Great info, Hoss! I don't know how you figure this stuff out, it never fails to impress me!

It's a mixture of watching episodes, searching the internet for information, and looking over maps (both current and historic). I'd like to give a special mention to one of the sources: HazzardNet member Wekke. I had planned to link to his website and the thread about his visit to some of the locations over on cglfc.com, but in the last couple of months his website has disappeared and just in the last couple of weeks the pictures on cglfc have also gone (the thread is still there, but not much use without pictures). The location of the intersection of East Potrero Road/Highway 23 (above) and that of the first picture below are thanks to Wekke. With Wekke's pictures apparently unavailable, I may add some pictures of West Potrero Road soon.

Still on Highway 23, and about 1/4 of a mile south of Lake Eleanor is this section of road with the distinctive rocky outcrop in the background. It's used in several episodes - this is from 'Uncle Boss'. Click here for a Google Maps Street View.

Slightly further south is the intersection of Decker Canyon Road and East Carlisle Road. I thought I had a grab from a different angle, but this one from 'Duke of Duke' will do. It's where Bo and Luke first encounter Gaylord Duke in his XK-E. If you click here and you can see the hills in the background (although the foreground has changed a far bit).

Here's the same intersection as seen from East Carlisle Road. This picture is from the start of Cletus's skateboard stunt from 'The Late J.D. Hogg' (see above for how it ended). I'm guessing they had to use two locations because there's no water here and no hill near the fire station. In this shot there's not a house in sight. If you clicked on the previous link you can spin around and see the entrance to Sycamore Canyon Drive and Denver Springs Drive on top of the hill, both of which have been built since Dukes was filmed.

This is the view up East Carlisle Road from the car that Cletus nearly hits (the one in the previous picture). The house on the hill is still there, but the trees around it have grown and it now has neighbors.

[HossC]

There are several episodes that use other parts of Decker Canyon Road (see the second picture in the previous post - the one with the yellow sign on the right), but there are no interesting landmarks.

That leaves me with these pictures that I wanted to post last week, but it took me a while finding the last scene (how I wish I screengrabbed it the first time I saw it). We're now continuing down East Carlisle Road, south of the previous two pictures. Several chases take place down this road, but the first easily recognizable feature is this bridge. I had a good number of screengrabs to choose from because it appears so often. The one I eventually chose is from 'Enos Strate to the Top' - most of the chase near the start of the episode is along this road. The background here shows just hills, but in the last 30 years it's been landscaped and is now part of a golf course. For the Google Maps view click here.

This is the same bridge from down by the river (seen here in 'Mason Dixon's Girls'). The main picture shows water under the bridge, but in 'Uncle Boss' the Dukes were able to hide under the bridge because the bed was dry (see inset).

Another familiar feature down this road is this small rocky hill. The picture I've chosen is from 'Enos Strate to the Top'. See how it looks today on Google Maps.

If you looked at the Google link above you'll have seen that there's a small bridge on the right. When Dukes was filmed there was just a slighly broken white fence leading to this bridge, and cars regularly drive in and out of the side road. Today the white fence has been replaced by a stone entrance and a set of electric gates. The picture is from 'Mason Dixon's Girls'.

There may have been some filming further south, but when East Carlisle Road becomes West Carlisle Road it also becomes a private road, so the Google Street View cars could go no further.

[CDoherty95]

Hoss I believe if you go turn the camera around from the wooden bridge and travel down a few hundred meters you get to the place where the 2 bad guys in "The Ghost Of General Lee" are released at the start of the episode.

[HossC]

Hoss I believe if you go turn the camera around from the wooden bridge and travel down a few hundred meters you get to the place where the 2 bad guys in "The Ghost Of General Lee" are released at the start of the episode.

Well CD, I dug out my DVD, and you've helped me to answer my question about which episode the picture of East Potrero Road in this post came from (third picture down) - it was 'The Ghost of General Lee'.

You're on the right road (both literally and metaphorically), but you're going in the wrong direction. The scene where the Sweetwater sheriff drops off the two bad guys is back past the other bridge, near the junction with Carlisle Road. Check out the inset tree from the Google Street View and compare it to the one behind the patrol car.

This small structure in the field has changed slightly, but the fence in the foreground and the trees behind are pretty much the same.

The bad guys end up where they began, although I'm sure the crash itself was filmed on a different stretch of road. If you clicked on the Google link then spin around and you'll see that the area to the right of this picture is virtually unchanged. The area to the left, including the section of road where the Sweetwater County sign was located, is now the car park for the Sherwood Lake Golf Club (the same one mentioned in the previous post - it's a par 54 course designed by Jack Nicklaus that opened in 2006). Don't confuse it with Sherwood Country Club across the lake - I'll be covering that later.

Finally, and out of sequence (sorry), is another view of the bridge from my previous post. This is the view that the Sweetwater sheriff gets of the chase from up on the hill. As far as I can tell this land is part of Canyon Ranch. Their website claims it serves "the needs of feature films, photo shoots, commercials, as well as episodic television and music videos" but doesn't name anything that's been filmed there, and I can't find any references to Dukes using the ranch.

[RogerDuke]

Mr. Hoss is a genius!

And he always thought we were just keeping him around for his good looks!

[Brian Coltrane]

More amazing work, Hoss! Great details.

[MaryAnne]

This small structure in the field has changed slightly, but the fence in the foreground and the trees behind are pretty much the same.

I dunno what amazes me more, that after 30 years, the tree is still there....or that the little thing in the field is still there!! (Slightly different now but still there! Looks like a still... LOL)

Considering what went in across the street from here and knowing that parts of the other ranch where they filmed, Golden Oaks, have been developed into condos (I believe) it's nice to see that this particular spot has survived.

[Brian Coltrane]

What the heck IS that thing in the field? A birdhouse? A livestock feeder? Minature missle silo? It's kinda driving me nuts, now.

[CDoherty95]

What the heck IS that thing in the field? A birdhouse? A livestock feeder? Minature missle silo? It's kinda driving me nuts, now.

You're meant to think it's a silo,but in reality it's one of Boss Hogg's stills

[Brian Coltrane]

Heh heh! It's kinda small for that. Whatever the freaky little artifact is, I'm amazed it's still there. Maybe everybody's afraid of it.

[Moparmotel]

This may be a little off topic but does anyone know about the big fires in this area I keep hearing about? Reason I'm asking is because I'll go check this little thing out but want to make sure it's still there and didn't get burned up in the fires.

[CDoherty95]

This may be a little off topic but does anyone know about the big fires in this area I keep hearing about? Reason I'm asking is because I'll go check this little thing out but want to make sure it's still there and didn't get burned up in the fires.

I don't know about Lake Sherwood but as far as I know Valencia was burnt up in the fires a few years back. But I think the sets were torn down by that stage so nothing was damaged.

I saw your post about going to LA and looking for Dukes locations.

The first ranch (Golden Oaks Ranch) is still used as a movie set although I think you can get a tour of the ranch if you precook it.

Lake Sherwood was turned into an exclusive country club,and the only way you can get in is by a reference from an existing member.

Valencia Oaks Movie Ranch (now Lyons Canyon Ranch) is owned by a developer,but it's unlikely that the ranch will ever be developed now as it's apparently in a fire zone. As far as I know there's a chainlink fence on the Old Road entrance,but you can get in from the housing estate just north of the ranch if you're not up to climbing a fence.

I'm in the process of gathering information on Valencia Oaks Movie Ranch and putting it into a thread here on HNet. A tree fell down on one of the main trails in the ranch,and as a result the whole southern track and it's branches have become overgrown and disused. The lake had long since dried up (probably at the same time as the fires) and the meadows and empty lots you see in the later seasons have become overgrown with brush and weeds.

I'm sure once you get out to Valencia you'll recognize certain areas from certain episodes.

And don't forget to take plenty of pictures!! They sure help out me and Hoss when it comes to finding locations.

[HossC]

I know that in another thread I recently promised to cover West Potrero Road. I'm still collecting screengrabs, but it's coming soon.

This post concerns a few screengrabs from season 2 that have been hanging around my hard-drive for a while saved as "unknown". I expect some locations to change over the 30 years since filming, but these didn't look like the sort of places that would've changed beyond recognition. Despite loads of searching around Lake Sherwood I couldn't find them. Then yesterday I was watching 'The Big Bang Theory' episode 'The Terminator Decoupling' where the boys take the Coast Starlight train to San Francisco, meeting Summer Glau along the way. Sheldon explains that the others are about sit on the wrong side of the carriage because "On this side, you’ll see panoramic ocean vistas inaccessible to any other form of transportation, while on your side, you’ll be treated to 350 miles of CostCos, Jiffy Lubes, and cinderblock homes with above-ground pools". I went to Google Maps to check out the "panoramic ocean vistas" and started following the train tracks out of Los Angeles Union Station. When the tracks crossed West Olive Avenue in Burbank (it goes by WB's studios) I got distracted into thinking about Dukes again, and found myself being dragged north towards Santa Clarita. As an aside, in a more recent episode of 'The Big Bang Theory' ('The Rhinitis Revelation') Sheldon wants to use their broken elevator shaft as a missile silo to launch a pre-emptive strike on Burbank ("Get them before they get us") - TBBT is filmed at WB's Burbank Studios, just a couple down from where Dukes was filmed. I keep looking for one of the backlots to appear in TBBT, but they rarely use outdoor locations and so far I haven't spotted any. But I digress ...

Don't ask why, but I decided to check out Placerita Canyon Road on the south side of Golden Oaks Ranch and found one of the locations I'd been looking for. This piece of road is used in several episodes in season 2, including being the part of Hatchapee County where Sheriff 'Spike' Loomis tries to catch Boss and Jesse in 'Days of Shine and Roses', which is where the first picture comes from. I'm guessing this road was an early addition to Google Street View because the images are quite blurry and the low angle of the sun doesn't help either - check it out here. I suppose my virtual train ride will have to wait for another day.

Looking in the other direction we see the same road as it appeared in 'The Rustlers'. The aerial view shows a new turn-off that has been constructed on the north side of the road that is not present in the Street View. This means that the Street View looks more like it appeared in Dukes.

I still had a few of other "unknown" pictures, so I continued east on Placerita Canyon Road. When I reached this spot I realized that I found another filming location. The picture below is from 'Gold Fever'.

Finally I have a picture from 'Arrest Jesse Duke'. It's where Jesse arrives on the scene of the first car-stripping. I think this is the same location as the picture above shown from a different angle - the camera foreshortening makes it hard to compare the mountains in the background, and there's not a lot else to go on. What do y'all think?.

I still have a few "unknown" pictures left to identify, but this clears up about half of them.

[CDoherty95]

Hoss I think you're right. Although it's difficult to tell with the two different angles,I think the Jesse is standing roughly where the Ford is in the last picture.

It never ceases to amaze me how one area can be made to look like a couple of different locations,with just a few different camera angles.

[HossC]

MaryAnne posted a similar grab to the one below a few months ago in the Trivia thread. Coincidentally I had grabbed this one a few weeks earlier but had filed it as "unknown". The top one is from 'Arrest Jesse Duke', the lower one shows the same sign as it appeared in 'Enos Strate to the Top'. I tried Googling the location as it's the only scene from Dukes that I can think of that clearly has 'Lake Sherwood' named in it. Obviously it had to be near the lake, but where?. When I got no luck with my searching I decided it must have disappeared as part of the redevelopment of the area and that I may never find it.

Then, earlier this week TheDukesOfHazzardfan01 posted a link to 'The Dukes of Hazzard: E! True Hollywood Story' on YouTube. The map below is pieced together from a couple of grabs I took from that video - sorry for the bad quality but, as I said, I took the grabs from a YouTube video that looks like it may be a VHS transfer. The map gives the route from WB's studios in Burbank (you can just about make out Alamera, Riverside and Olive as the bottom right) to a filming location near "Sherwood Lake". The directions in the bottom left say something like:

'Dukes of Hazzard'

Ventura Fwy west to Westlake Blvd.

offramp, turn left stay on Westlake

@ Carlisle Rd turn right. First

gate on right past Lake Rec. Area

entrance on right. Turn in and

proceed to parking area.

As soon as I saw 'Lake Rec. Area' I went back to the "unknown" grabs.

As far as I can tell, Carlisle Road's first gate on the right puts us near the present-day location of Sherwood Lake Golf Club. The black and white map below shows the area as it was in 1980, and clearly shows Park Road running from Carlisle Road up to the south of the lake. The colored map below shows how much this area has changed in the last 30 years, and that Park Road has been considerably re-routed at the southern end. I think that the "Recreational Area" sign was at the junction of Carlisle and Park.

To try to confirm the location I've included these last pictures. The top one is taken from inside Enos's car just as he's about to hit Hughie in the other patrol car. Like the first picture in this post it is also from 'Arrest Jesse Duke', so we know it's right by the sign. The lower picture is from 'The Ghost of General Lee', which we know is near the golf club (see this recent post). Both pictures appear to show the same white-topped poles on the right, and the telephone pole has the same markings on it (most of the others down this road had four evenly-spaced markings like the one on the right of the upper picture). If you look at the Google Street View you'll also see that there's some kind of utility box on the right of the road, in a similar position to the one on the far right of the lower top picture. The leaning tree in the middle of the Street View may also be the one above The General in the same picture.

[HossC]

If I sounded slightly unsure of the location of the "Lake Sherwood" sign identified in the previous post, after watching a few more episodes I'm now certain about it. I've also noticed that in 'Granny Annie' Rosco chases the General up the road opposite the sign.

The picture below acts as a great signpost to today's subject (you see what I did there?).

I've discussed this location briefly in another thread, but didn't include any pictures. This post is mainly concerned with the landing strip that was located at Indian Dunes. The map below shows how it looked in 1977 (the closest date to Dukes filming that I could find). The road across the top is Henry Mayo Drive (SR-126), and is quite close to both Castaic Junction and Six Flags Magic Mountain Amusement Park that I've covered in earlier posts. The airport was built by the Newhall Land & Farming Company sometime between 1964 and 1969.

Here's another view from around the same era, this time from the north and in color. I found it on a website about filming locations used in 'Escape From New York'. It details how the area behind the runway was also used for filming episodes of Airwolf, The A-Team, The Fall Guy, Knight Rider and MacGyver. The '70s TV show 'Black Sheep Squadron' used both the runway and the area behind. If you want to see more, click here (it's a 6.5Mb PDF file with loads of photos).

As well as the landing strip I've also found loads of references to (and fond memories of) the motocross racing that used to take place here. The picture above shows the Shadow Glen and International tracks along with a 1/2 mile oval and a small oval near the road. The motocross seems to have stopped sometime around 1985. Some of the runway was torn up soon after, although the eastern side survived, at least partially, into the early '90s. This article from the LA Times says that Indian Dunes ceased to be a filming location in late 1990, and returned to farm land. Like the Valencia Oaks Ranch, there have been plans to build on the site, but nothing is definite yet. Today there's not a lot left to suggest the area's history. The picture below shows how it looks currently (I've tried to cover the same area as the black & white map above for easy comparison). Explore for yourself on Google Maps.

[HossC]

I realize that the previous post didn't mention Dukes much - well let me fix that. Below is a picture from 'High Flyin' Dukes' - an episode that makes good use of the landing strip at Indian Dunes.

The camera must have been in virtually the same spot as the one that took the picture below. It shows a more recent (2004) view across the area that was formally the eastern end of the runway. The hills is the background are identical. Click here to see the great site where I found the picture. It give a lot more history of the airport along with more pictures, both past and present. It also names a few other TV shows and movies that were filmed there.

Here's a picture from 'Comrade Duke' that shows the airport buildings. The Hazzard Airport building on the left and the gas pump were added for filming, but the other three are visible on the black and white map above.

This is all that can be seen of that same area today.