I quickly found myself in the Wild West as I explored a unique town that was purposefully built to be a 'living, breathing movie set'. Pioneertown is an unincorporated desert community and famous Western movie set. It's not every day you get to explore a real-life Western movie set with a small community, but there it was, frozen in time - and it was absolutely wild.
The Allure of Pioneertown
I had heard of Pioneertown before, known as a filming location for major Western movies, but after watching a Netflix episode of Selling Sunset, which featured the unincorporated desert community in California, I was even more intrigued. Any fans of the show will recall Alanna Gold falsely claiming she and her husband 'owned Pioneertown' and that she was the 'sheriff of the town'. In reality, the Golds are just shareholders in the Pioneertown Land Company that owns a small number of properties in the Mane Street area. Alanna later issued a public apology, affirming that she loved Pioneertown and 'simply got too excited talking about it', while also noting that it was where she met and married her husband.
But it's not just Selling Sunset stars who have a fondness for the real-life movie set and Old West community located in the High Desert of San Bernardino County, California. Pioneertown has drawn in actors, pop stars, and reality TV stars from across the globe, and I was lucky enough to visit.
A Living, Breathing Movie Set
Pioneertown was established in 1946 after Dick Curtis had the vision of creating an 1880s-themed, 'living, breathing movie set'. Within easy reach of Palm Springs and Los Angeles, the idea was that Pioneertown served as a filming location and also as a place of residence. During the 1940s and 1950s, amid the golden age of B-Westerns, more than 50 films and television series were filmed in Pioneertown, and today it's thought to have hosted more than 200 productions. Meanwhile, Pappy & Harriet's, a music venue and barbecue restaurant, has hosted performances by pop stars such as Paul McCartney, Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend, Lorde, and Ke$ha, among others.
For me, walking through the main area of Mane Street felt as though I had stepped back in time, with a strip of Western town facades of rustic wooden buildings and signs, including the red Likker Barn, Bank, Land Office, Hay Feed and Jail. While these are purely there as a movie backdrop, the addition of the dry desert ground, beer barrels, hay bales, and cactus plants really sets the scene. But it didn't just feel like a movie set; amongst these surroundings were the Red Dog Saloon, a few artisan shops selling a wide selection of t-shirts and cowboy boots, a pottery studio, and a beauty shop. They were delightful to wander around, and it was hard to resist buying a pair of white, starry cowboys, maybe next time!
Unexpected Discoveries
What I didn't expect to stumble upon was the Pioneertown petting zoo, found at the top of Mane Street, with adorable baby goats, micro pigs, a pony and a wide selection of small birds. Visitors are invited into the petting zoo for $10 (around £7.46), and while I was tempted, the number of birds quickly put me off, so I was more than happy to watch from a distance.
While Pioneertown isn't big, it was certainly worth the trip to feel as though I was on the set of a Western movie. I even tried my hand at lassoing a bull, albeit not a real one, but it was all part of the otherworldly experience of exploring a town with a functioning community with a blend of a real-life Western movie set.
Before visiting, it was hard to imagine that such a place existed in the world. But there I was, where once the cowboy Hollywood stars had made their fame, and I certainly had a dilly of a time out yonder!
