Alabama Hills are a "range of hills" and rock formation

Rock formations in the United States

The following is a partial list of rock formations in the United States, by state:-Arizona:*Canyon de Chelly National Monument**Spider Rock*Chiricahua National Monument**Duck on a Rock**Organ Pipe**Mushroom Rock**Sea Captain*Monument Valley...

s near the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the Owens Valley

Owens Valley

Owens Valley is the arid valley of the Owens River in eastern California in the United States, to the east of the Sierra Nevada and west of the White Mountains and Inyo Mountains on the west edge of the Great Basin section...

, west of Lone Pine

Lone Pine, California

Lone Pine is a census-designated place in Inyo County, California, United States. Lone Pine is located south-southeast of Independence, at an elevation of 3727 feet . The population was 2,035 at the 2010 census, up from 1,655 at the 2000 census. The town is located in the Owens Valley, near the...

 in Inyo County, California

Inyo County, California

-National protected areas:* Death Valley National Park * Inyo National Forest * Manzanar National Historic Site-Major highways:* U.S. Route 6* U.S. Route 395* State Route 127* State Route 136* State Route 168* State Route 178...

.

Though geographically considered a range of hills, geologically they are a part of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Alabama Hills Recreation Area

The Alabama Hills, managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management

Bureau of Land Management

The Bureau of Land Management is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior which administers America's public lands, totaling approximately , or one-eighth of the landmass of the country. The BLM also manages of subsurface mineral estate underlying federal, state and private...

 as the BLM Alabama Hills Recreation Area, are a protected habitat

Habitat

* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

 and for public enjoyment.

Geology

The rounded contours of the Alabamas contrast with the sharp ridges of the Sierra Nevada to the west. Though this might suggest that they formed from a different orogeny

Orogeny

Orogeny refers to forces and events leading to a severe structural deformation of the Earth's crust due to the engagement of tectonic plates. Response to such engagement results in the formation of long tracts of highly deformed rock called orogens or orogenic belts...

, the Alabamas are the same age as the nearby Sierras. The difference in wear can be accounted for by different patterns of erosion.

Mount Whitney

Mount Whitney

Mount Whitney is the highest summit in the contiguous United States with an elevation of . It is on the boundary between California's Inyo and Tulare counties, west-northwest of the lowest point in North America at Badwater in Death Valley National Park...

, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, towers several thousand feet above this low range, which itself is 1500 feet (457.2 m) above the floor of Owens Valley. However, gravity surveys indicate that the Owens Valley is filled with about 10000 feet (3,048 m) of sediment and that the Alabamas are the tip of a very steep escarpment. This feature may have been created by many earthquakes similar to the 1872 Lone Pine earthquake

1872 Lone Pine earthquake

The Great Lone Pine earthquake was one of the largest earthquakes to hit California in recorded history. The quake struck on March 26, 1872 and its epicenter was near Lone Pine, California in Owens Valley...

 which, in a single event, caused a vertical displacement of 15–20 feet.

There are two main types of rock exposed at Alabama Hills. One is an orange, drab weathered metamorphosed

Metamorphic rock

Metamorphic rock is the transformation of an existing rock type, the protolith, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in form". The protolith is subjected to heat and pressure causing profound physical and/or chemical change...

 volcanic

Volcano

2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...

 rock that is 150-200 million years old. The other type of rock exposed here is 90 million year old granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 which weathers to potato-shaped large boulders, many of which stand on end due to spheroidal weathering

Spheroidal weathering

Spheroidal weathering is a type of chemical weathering that creates rounded boulders and helps to create domed monoliths. This should not be confused with stream abrasion, a physical process which also creates rounded rocks on a much smaller scale...

 acting on many nearly vertical joints in the rock.

Dozens of natural arch

Natural arch

A natural arch or natural bridge is a natural geological formation where a rock arch forms, with an opening underneath. Most natural arches form as a narrow ridge, walled by cliffs, become narrower from erosion, with a softer rock stratum under the cliff-forming stratum gradually eroding out until...

es are among the main attractions at the Alabama Hills. They can be accessed by short hikes from the Whitney Portal Road, the Movie Flat Road and the Horseshoe Meadows Road. Among the notable features of the area are: Mobius Arch, Lathe Arch, the Eye of Alabama and Whitney Portal Arch.

History

The Alabama Hills were named for CSS Alabama

CSS Alabama

CSS Alabama was a screw sloop-of-war built for the Confederate States Navy at Birkenhead, United Kingdom, in 1862 by John Laird Sons and Company. Alabama served as a commerce raider, attacking Union merchant and naval ships over the course of her two-year career, during which she never anchored in...

. When news of the Confederate

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 warship's exploits reached prospectors in California sympathetic to the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 Confederates, they named many mining claims after the ship, and then the name came to be applied to the entire range. Then, when Alabama was sunk off the coast of Normandy

Normandy

Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

 by USS Kearsarge

USS Kearsarge (1861)

USS Kearsarge, a Mohican-class sloop-of-war, is best known for her defeat of the Confederate commerce raider CSS Alabama during the American Civil War. The Kearsarge was the only ship of the United States Navy named for Mount Kearsarge in New Hampshire...

 in 1864, prospectors sympathetic to the North named a mining district

Mining town

A mining community, also known as a mining town or a mining camp, is a community that houses miners. Mining communities are usually created around a mine or a quarry for the extraction or smeltering of ore.-United States:...

, a mountain pass

Mountain pass

A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...

, a mountain peak

Mountain

Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...

, and a town after the Kearsarge.

Filming location

The Alabama Hills are a popular filming location for television and movie productions, especially Westerns set in an archetypical "rugged" environment. Since the early 1920s, 150 movie

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

s and about a dozen television shows have been filmed here, including Tom Mix

Tom Mix

Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...

 films, Hopalong Cassidy

Hopalong Cassidy

Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional cowboy hero created in 1904 by the author Clarence E. Mulford, who wrote a series of popular short stories and twenty-eight novels based on the character....

 films, The Gene Autry Show

The Gene Autry Show

The Gene Autry Show is an American western/cowboy television series which aired for 91 episodes on CBS from July 23, 1950 until August 7, 1956, originally sponsored by Wrigley's Doublemint chewing gum.-Overview:...

, and The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger (TV Series)

The Lone Ranger is an American western television series starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels as Tonto. The live-action series initially featured Gerald Mohr as the episode narrator...

. Classics such as Gunga Din

Gunga Din (film)

Gunga Din is a 1939 RKO adventure film directed by George Stevens, loosely based on the poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling, combined with elements of his novel Soldiers Three...

, Springfield Rifle

Springfield Rifle (1952 film)

Springfield Rifle is a western film, directed by Andre de Toth and released by Warner Bros. Pictures in 1952. The film is set during the American Civil War and stars Gary Cooper in the lead role as Major Alex Kearney. Phyllis Thaxter played the lead female role as Erin Kearney. The film also...

, The Violent Men (1955 film), Bad Day at Black Rock

Bad Day at Black Rock

Bad Day at Black Rock is a 1955 thriller film directed by John Sturges that combines elements of Westerns and film noir. It tells the story of a mysterious stranger who arrives at a tiny isolated town in a desert of the southwest United States in search of a man...

(1955), the Budd Boetticher

Budd Boetticher

Oscar "Budd" Boetticher, Jr. was a film director during the classical period in Hollywood most famous for the series of low-budget Westerns he made in the late 1950s starring Randolph Scott.Known for their sparse style, dramatic rocky locations near Lone Pine, California, and recurring stories of...

/Randolph Scott

Randolph Scott

Randolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals , adventure tales, war films, and even a few...

 "Ranown" westerns, part of How the West Was Won

How the West Was Won (film)

How the West Was Won is a 1962 American epic Western film. The picture was one of the last "old-fashioned" epic films made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to enjoy great success. It follows four generations of a family as they move ever westward, from western New York state to the Pacific Ocean...

, and Joe Kidd

Joe Kidd

Joe Kidd is a 1972 American western film starring Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall, written by Elmore Leonard and directed by John Sturges....

.

More recent productions such as Tremors

Tremors (film)

Tremors is a 1990 American science fiction horror comedy film directed by Ron Underwood, based on a screenplay by Brent Maddock and S. S. Wilson, and starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross and Reba McEntire...

 and Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree (1993 film)

Joshua Tree, also known as Army of One, is a 1993 action film directed by Academy Award and BAFTA-winning stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong, written by Steven Pressfield and starring Dolph Lundgren, Kristian Alfonso, and George Segal...

, were filmed at "movie ranch

Movie ranch

A movie ranch is a ranch that is at least partially dedicated to being used as a site for the creation and production of motion pictures, and television productions...

" sites known as Movie Flats and Movie Flat Road. In Gladiator

Gladiator (2000 film)

Gladiator is a 2000 historical epic film directed by Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Ralf Möller, Oliver Reed, Djimon Hounsou, Derek Jacobi, John Shrapnel and Richard Harris. Crowe portrays the loyal Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius, who is betrayed...

, actor Russell Crowe

Russell Crowe

Russell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...

 rides a horse in front of the Alabamas, with Mount Whitney in the background, for a scene presumably set in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. Star Trek Generations was filmed here in addition to Overton, Nevada

Overton, Nevada

Overton is an Unincorporated Town located in Clark County, Nevada. The town is on the north end of Lake Mead. The town is home to Perkins Field airport and Echo Bay Airport....

 and Paramount Studios. This range was one of the filming locations for Disney's Dinosaur

Dinosaur (film)

Dinosaur is a 2000 American computer-animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures on May 19, 2000, and is the 39th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...

. More recently, many parts of the films Iron Man

Iron Man (film)

Iron Man is a 2008 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Directed by Jon Favreau, the film stars Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, an industrialist and master engineer who builds a powered exoskeleton and becomes the technologically advanced superhero, Iron...

 and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a 2009 American science fiction-action film directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. It is the sequel to the 2007 film Transformers and the second installment in the live-action Transformers series...

were filmed here.

External links

• Official BLM Alabama Hills Recreation Area website
• Beverly and Jim Rogers Museum of Lone Pine Film History website
• Alabama Hills - VR Panorama, Don Bain's Virtual Guidebooks.
• IMDB list of movies filmed in the Alabama Hills.