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Don't know how I could have forgotten about this movie. "The Mine with
the Iron Door," a silent film from 1922. I heard many times about how
my great-grandmother's horse, "Birdie," was in it, ridden by the
heroine. But, my mother was going through my grandmother's photo
collection today and found two pictures that her mother received after
her horse "starred" in a movie.

The movie was based on a legend that there's a gold mine in the
Catalina Mountains, with an iron door. But, it was lost in the
earthquake that struck Tucson in the mid-1890's. I asked my
grandmother if she remembered it, she did. Her last year of primary
school was the last year the original Safford School was used. It was
damaged in the quake and they replaced it the next year. She moved on
to Tucson High, which still exists as Roskruge Elementary.

The movie was based on a book by Harold Bell Wright - he of the
Harold Bell Wright Estates near Speedway and Wilmot (where you will
find a Natachee Street the Indian in the movie) Harold Bell Wright
did do alot for Tucson while he lived here, helped build the VA
hospital and insisted that most of his movies be filmed around here
so that Tucson would get the money. As a side note one of his early
books turned into a movies was Shepard of the Hills the movie didn't
follow the book very well but it starred a very young handsome man
named John Wayne.

--- In vanishingtucson@..., "Helen" <Helengg1@...> wrote:

Don't know how I could have forgotten about this movie. "The Mine

with

the Iron Door," a silent film from 1922. I heard many times about

how

my great-grandmother's horse, "Birdie," was in it, ridden by the
heroine. But, my mother was going through my grandmother's photo
collection today and found two pictures that her mother received

after

her horse "starred" in a movie.

The movie was based on a legend that there's a gold mine in the
Catalina Mountains, with an iron door. But, it was lost in the
earthquake that struck Tucson in the mid-1890's. I asked my
grandmother if she remembered it, she did. Her last year of

primary

school was the last year the original Safford School was used. It

was

damaged in the quake and they replaced it the next year. She moved

on

to Tucson High, which still exists as Roskruge Elementary.