An abandoned movie ranch in Santa Susana- No, not THAT one.

[stillrobertpaulsen]

Most people, when you tell them that there's an abandoned movie ranch located in the Santa Susana Pass in southern California, immediately think of the Spahn movie ranch that was taken over by the Manson gang in the late 60s. But there's another one that my wife and I recently explored: Corriganville. This ranch named after western actor/stuntman/Man in a Gorilla suit actor Ray Corrigan, was open to the public as an amusement park from May 1, 1949 until 1966 when Bob Hope closed the ranch.

We've written more about it on our blog and also shot a few videos of the area. Here's the first one:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2W0w1V32rY

[Rory]

Is that near the Rocketdyne site?

[stillrobertpaulsen]

Is that near the Rocketdyne site?

Thanks Rory! Neek was asking about that and I couldn't remember the name. But yes, I believe it is very near Corriganville. Isn't that the place where the experimental nuclear reactor had a core meltdown back in the 50s?

[Rory]

Yes, thats the one. Reactor with no containment melted down and burned for a week before they got it under control.

There trying to build a master plan residential community out there on one of the most contaminated sites. Fun times all round

[stillrobertpaulsen]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
We're going to have to find that place and do a video there in the future.

Meanwhile, we filmed a follow-up of sorts at a place right up the street from Corriganville. The Santa Susana Railroad Depot has a remarkable history of its own, but what made it really special for us was that it also displayed the history of Corriganville and filled in a lot of questions that we had about it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HvezCorLBo

[stillrobertpaulsen]

After discovering at the Santa Susana Railroad Depot that we had missed part of Corriganville, we went back to find and film Robin Hood Lake. Here's the video we made of that:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1HEycGmEao
Abandoned Western Movie Ranch and Amusement Park - Corriganville Part 2