#iverson ranch

Stoney Point is the site of a Tongva Indian rancheria until the 1790s, with Spanish invasion. It is believed that the Village of Momonga was located at Stoney Point. It is culturally significant because Momonga was multilingual and multiracial, allowing intermarriage of Chumash, Fernandeno and Gabrieleno peoples.

A sulphur spring, believed to possess spiritual properties runs adjacent to Stoney Point Park on the Eastern side. It is said that shamans would visit Stoney Point in preparation for the Winter Solstice celebration that drew native people from as far away as Temecula.

Scene from the movie The Grapes of Wrath showing when the Joads finally arrive in California…what they are looking at is Chatsworth. Stoney Point can be seen to the left.

Redmesa Road in the northwest corner of Chatsworth leads to one of the most recognizable areas of the former historic Iverson Movie Location Ranch -- The Garden of the Gods -- a twenty three-acre park site acquired by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy in 1987.

Karl and Augusta Iverson, who owned a 500-acre family ranch in the Simi Hills on Santa Susana Pass above Chatsworth, first allowed a movie to be shot on the property as early as 1912, with the silent movies Man's Genesis (1912), "My Official Wife" (1914) and The Squaw Man (1914) among the features most often cited as the earliest films shot on the site. A long and fruitful association soon evolved between Hollywood and the Iverson Movie Ranch, which became the go-to outdoor location for Westerns in particular and also appeared in many adventures, war movies, comedies, science-fiction films and other productions, standing in for Africa, the Middle East, the South Pacific and any number of exotic locations.

Because of its unique rock formations and also its remoteness, Iverson Ranch was used to film over 3,500 movies and televison episodes..........more than any other movie ranch. The long-running TV western The Virginian filmed on location at Iverson in the ranch's later period, as did Bonanza and Gunsmoke.

http://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_Views_of_the_San_Fernando_Valley.html

http://www.lamountains.com/parks.asp?parkid=16