EXPLORING the NEEDLES in 1949: With Filmmakers Ray & Jinny Garner (ZX#90)

About a year ago, I posted the first series of screenshots from a film that had come my way years ago. A Zephyr reader mailed me a homemade DVD. On it was a very rough copy of a silent 16mm film —a travelog of sorts— shot in 1949 by Ray Garner and his wife Virginia. I grabbed a few screenshots and clips from that DVD and I believe you can even find those clips on The Zephyr facebook page. But again the quality was poor and even distorted—- the image was stretched when it was digitized.

Then last year, by accident, I found the film in its entirety on the internet. It had been donated to the National Archives and though the film quality still pales by today’s standards, it is the history in these films and images that I love, more than the film quality itself. Ray and Virginia Garner started making films in the late 1930s. Ray’s first known project was a film about ascending the Grand Teton with a group of Boy Scouts in 1936. Sadly the film has been lost. But it was the beginning of an independent filmmaker career and soon, a wonderful collaboration with his new wife Virginia. Though the title of the film I’m offering here gives credit to Ray, Virginia, or “Jinny” as she was known to everyone, was not only his equal in the filming, production and presentation of what were often silent films, she was certainly more photogenic and appears often in them. That’s’ what gives these 16mm movies such a personal feel. As I understand the story, they toured the country with their movies and at various gatherings, they would narrate the film in person as it was being shown.

Ray and Virginia came to Southeast Utah in May 1949. They spent the summer wandering the Four Corners, from what was then a very empty Arches National Monument, to the Needles, more than 15 years before it would become a part of the new Canyonlands National Park. Later they traveled south through Tuba City and scaled Agathla Peak on the Navajo Reservation and even drifted as far south as Sedona.

I have pulled dozens of screenshots from the film and tried to restore them as much as possible. And at the bottom of this page and in further installments, I’ll include the link to the Garners’ one hour motion picture in its entirety. Keep in mind, it’s a silent film.

In 1949, Bates Wilson had just come to Arches National Monument as its first superintendent, and was immediately drawn to the vast landscape to the west. The idea of making those tens of thousand of square miles of canyon country a national monument as well. Interior Secretary Harold Ickes loved the idea but local and state opposition delayed the issue for 30 years.

Ray was born in 1913 and died in 1989. Virginia came along in 1915. She met and married Ray in 1938; it was the start of a 50 year partnership that took them all over the world, from canyon country to Egypt and to equatorial Africa. They were not wealthy by any means. but they were lucky to have caught the attention of the Harmon Foundation. The non-profit organization created to support the arts and history was the brainstorm of former Alaska Governor William Harmon. The governor was fairly prosperous and the Harmon Foundation was his legacy. He, in fact, died in 1928, before he ever saw the work of the Garners. But his generosity and support of projects like theirs is a tribute to the governor and his vision; the Garners were grateful to him and to the foundation for decades.

According to Virginia Garner’s obituary, she and Ray even “made a film on learning to fly at the U.S. Army air base at Tuskegee, Alabama. Here, they were taught to fly by members of the famed African-American combat unit which came to be known as the Tuskegee Airmen. In a rare tribute, ‘Jinny’ was made an honorary Tuskegee airman.” She died in 2007.


NOW TO THE NEEDLES…1949

Here is the second installment of still images (and a link to the film) “The Desert— Exploring the Southwest”… It is devoted to their time in that wild part of the canyon country called The Needles, and which became part of Congressionally mandated “Canyonlands National Park” in 1964. But the Garners had some help, as is evident in these images; sixty years later, one of those “eyewitnesses” is still here to offer his memories of those days.

He’s Alan “Tug” Wilson, Bates Wilson’s son, and though it’s been decades since his dad let Tug work as a trail guide at age 14, he still has vivid memories of the Garners and a film crew from National Geographic which would feature Jack Breed’s feature “Roaming the West’s Four Corners.

I have never known The Needles backcountry as well as I wanted. By the late 1970s, the road to NPS district headquarters was paved, and over the last 50 years, visitation has increased dramatically, though then-controversial efforts by the NPS to limit “development” of the Needles have kept it from becoming a “windshield park” like so many other parks in the West. But in the early 70s, this country was almost as quiet as it had been with the Garners. Rangers were few and far between, and I was usually able to sneak my dog Muckluk onto the trail with me. We covered a lot of ground on foot, between 1973 and 1977.

Once Muck and I were able to catch a ride with two seasonal ranger pals, in the days when we could still run vehicles to Angel Arch. At the time, we never saw another car, but over the next decade, traffic increased and restrictions were placed on backcountry 4WD travel. Ultimately Salt Creek was closed to all vehicular traffic.

Still, my knowledge of the geography is relatively limited, so I turned to Tug for his assistance and advice. I sent Tug most of these screenshots and he was able to fill in the blanks for me. I’ve had some great email exchanges with Tug since we were first in touch, and I’m looking forward to posting some of his most vivid memories and photographs from his time in Southeast Utah…Something I really look forward to…

Jim Stiles

NOTE: You’ll notice that the quality of these images is not the best, but their historical value is priceless. The original 16mm film was badly degraded by the time anyone thought to digitize it. Still, despite the grainy, slightly blurred images, and those vertical scratches, I could look at these pictures all day. When you reach the end of the still images, note that there is a link to the film itself. There’s no sound, so do your own narration. But these images are worth thousands of words, coming as they do, from another time…Enjoy the ride…

LANDING A CESSNA IN CHESLER PARK w/ PUGH STOCKS

AN EARLY EFFORT TO IDENTIFY & PROTECT ARCHAEOLOGICAL TREASURES IN THE CANYON COUNTRY

TOO MUCH WATER…AND QUICKSAND!

…OR ELSE THERE’S NOT ENOUGH WATER.

AND WHEN THE WATER COLLECTING IS DONE, IT’S TIME TO ROLL ONE.

Camping in Chesler Park

To watch Ray and Virginia Garner’s 16 mm silent film, use this URL…Some are having trouble. I just tried to us this link and it works for me..

https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1276261&facet_format_t=%22video%2Fmp4%22&q=san+juan+county+

RAY AND VIRGINIA GARNER

Ray was born in 1913 and died in 1989. Virginia came along in 1915. She met and married Ray in 1938; it was the start of a 50 year partnership that took them all over the world, from canyon country to Egypt and to equatorial Africa. They were not wealthy by any means. but they were lucky to have caught the attention of the Harmon Foundation. The non-profit organization created to support the arts and history was the brainstorm of former Alaska Governor William Harmon. The governor was fairly prosperous and the Harmon Foundation was his legacy. He, in fact, died in 1928, before he ever saw the work of the Garners. But his generosity and support of projects like theirs is a tribute to the governor and his vision; the Garners were grateful to him and to the foundation for decades.

According to Virginia Garner’s obituary, she and Ray even “made a film on learning to fly at the U.S. Army air base at Tuskegee, Alabama. Here, they were taught to fly by members of the famed African-American combat unit which came to be known as the Tuskegee Airmen. In a rare tribute, ‘Jinny’ was made an honorary Tuskegee airman.”  She died in 2007.

To see Part One of this series of still shots in The Zephyr about the Garners’ 1949 visit to Arches National Monument, click here.

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