River to River Trail and Shawnee Forest Exploration
Cave in Rock, Battery Rock, and how the West was Won (film)
Cave in Rock, Battery Rock, and how the West was Won (film)
I researched the movie some because Battery Rock is where they filmed some of the footage. Then I rented the movie and captured some footage. How the West was Won was more of some separate stories shown in chronalogical order with some stories overlapping. This was part of the story of settlers moving West up the Ohio River.
There was this bushwhacking family settled down in Cave in Rock posing as traders, but if they had the advantage of numbers and surprise, they would kill the settlers, take what was valuable and throw the rest into the river. This nice girl wanted Jimmy Stewarts character to come into the cave and look into the back room and identify this “critter” they had trapped.
She then stabbed him from the back and he fell into a hole in the floor and came out into a pool below next to the river. None of that is actually there, but I think the pool was the low spot just South of Battery Rock on the bluff which was probably flooded then as some scenes show live tree branches sticking out of the water showing the river was up.
I’ve posted the photos of Cave in Rock, then Battery Rock where I went, then showing the scenes from the movie and the closest I had of the actual current location. Some of the movie was filmed in an entirely different location with much higher bluffs. Also you will have to remember this was all filmed after the locks and dams were built in the ’30’s as part of the New Deal, and when the Settlers were actually coming up the River, the level was much lower. (That’s how the Union Canon Battery at Batter Rock was effective. It was trained on a narrow part of the River where the Confederate boats would have to pass.)
Cave in Rock
the entrance West WallI did read there was a level that was filled, but I have no idea where that was.The back room where the “critter” was supposed to be. Maybe that was where a level was filled? It doesn’t go anywhere now.Crack in the roof where sun comes in during the right time of the day. It’s fenced off on top.Downriver SouthTo the South from the landing upon entering the river bank instead of North to Cave in Rock, there is another smaller cave. This is the hole in the top of it from the top of the bluff.(with my camera held over the fence)This is the entrance to the other cave. It isn’t very big and I don’t think it has any history.The Union Battery position at Battery Rock judging by the square holes cut in the floor. I Hope they had earplugs.Triangular Rock out in the River looking North. Looking South down the Beach at Battery Rock. Cave in Rock really doesn’t have a beach…this will come up later.Some of the possible Union engravings. That must have been a boring place to be for months.One of the square holes. Not sure the picture is right side up. There are several holes lined up, maybe for anchoring the guns.Instead of that vast distance, I once had found a map of the Ohio pre Lock and dams, and the river was 100 yards wide or narrower with islands. No Idea where it went.At one time there was a cabin on top of the Bluff, North of the Battery with a splendid view.This is as far North as you can go without getting wet. This is the view South. Notice that triangular rock. Lets look at the movie now.It was low when I was there, it was flooding when they filmed. I think it could have been where the triangular rock was with the camera out from the shore some on the dock they had built. Or not. It very probably was the rock sitting out from the bluff in this photo. From the further out dock they had built. When hes in a close up the scenery looks different in the background.That bulge looks like the bulge sticking out at the South end of Battery Rock beach.Jimmy, Walter Brennan, The not so innocent girl -South Wall and entrance. It’s quite possible the cave was actually a movie set. Or not.South wall again.Jimmy swimming in the pool under the cave (Nope) He just had a flesh wound and was none to happy about it.This would be a pool in flood stage, there is even a place with a waterfall when it has been raining. That eyeball looking hole at the top is just right of the tree in the movie. Some people don’t think it was filmed there, but they must have moved the bluff to wherever they did shoot. ;^P
