And the West is History: ‘A Ticket to Tomahawk’ cast and crew in Silverton – 1949

In August 1949, 20th Century Fox came to Durango and Silverton to film the big-budget movie, “A Ticket to Tomahawk.” The film starred Academy Award winners Ann Baxter and Walter Brennan. It also featured Oscar nominees Dan Dailey and Arthur Hunnicutt. Director Richard Sale (second from left) is standing with Baxter (fourth from left), Dailey and Brennan (third and second from right), and members of the D&RGW Railroad crew. The engine behind them was the Rio Grande Southern #20 converted to be the Emma Sweeney for filming. A wooden prop train engine was constructed in California and trucked to Durango and Silverton for scenes of the engine pulled by horses over mountains and down the streets of Epitaph (Silverton) because of the unfinished state of the fictional railroad. That full-size replica now sits on display at Santa Rita Park in Durango. – Ed Horvat for Animas Museum, edhorvat@animasmuseum.org (Catalog Number: 07.31.1 from the La Plata County Historical Society Photo Collections).