Alabama Hills

The Alabama Hills, just west of Lone Pine, have been used for over 400 movies and television shows, especially Westerns and British-army-in-India films, featuring the likes of John Wayne, Gene Autry, Gunga Din, Tom Mix, Errol Flynn, the Lone Ranger, Clint Eastwood, and Mel Gibson. This unusual landscape is favored by the industry because it can be filmed to look like other places.

The hills were the site of one of the last battles between the indigenous Paiute people and the white settlers of the Owens Valley. The name, "Alabama Hills," however, was given by Southern sympathizers from Lone Pine who named the geological feature after a Confederate cruiser. In response, Union sympathizers named a 12598’ peak in the Sierra crest above after the U.S.S. Kearsarge, which had sunk the cruiser.

Held every October since 1990, the Lone Pine Film Festival reprises the role of the area by showing both new and old Westerns.