This was an exterior wall that was preserved when the restaurant was built around it!Ī short walk up Clinton Street, past the Sherbino Theater, leads you past the building where Rooster Cogburn lived with the Chinaman and his cat. Don’t miss the actor and movie memorabilia and a sign painted for the film, which reads “Chamber’s Staple & Fancy Groceries – Fruits & vegetables”. Next door to the firehouse, the film company built a beautiful courthouse but this was just a shell: the interior courtroom scenes were filmed in the Ouray County Courthouse, in Ouray, 10 miles to the south.īe sure to visit the John Wayne themed True Grit Cafe, also on the West side of the Park. On the western edge of the park, the firehouse, which was the original town hall, got an added cupola and new coat of red paint for the occasion. Hanging Judge Parker’s 3 man gallows were erected in the town’s beautiful park, where trees were planted by school children more than a hundred years ago, and the park was the location for the triple hanging scene. In 6 weeks in 1969, the film crew turned 5 blocks of the center of this old railroad town into 1880’s Fort Smith, Arkansas. Spectacular scenery around our charming Colorado town, at the foot of the San Juan Mountains, caught the attention of the director of the film True Grit, starring John Wayne as the one-eyed U.S. A short walk up Clinton Street, past the Sherbino Theater, leads you to the living quarters of Rooster Cogburn. The jail wagon, which John Wayne brings back from the Indian Territories, now sits in the front yard of the Ouray County Ranch History Museum, the building that was originally the Old Rio Grande Southern Railroad Depot. The firehouse now survives as an artist studio, and the livery stable became the post office. In six weeks in 1968, the film crew turned the center of this old railroad town into the 1880s-style Fort Smith, Arkansas, complete with Hanging Judge Parker’s three-man gallows. Ouray County was the main film location with key sets in the movie located right in Ridgway. Spectacular scenery around our charming Colorado town caught the attention of the director of the film that was released in 1969. ![]() ![]() A 2010 remake of the popular movie featured Jeff Bridges in the lead role, but the original continues to have the most devotees, in large part to John Wayne’s iconic personality. True Grit's celebrity-studded cast featured Wayne, Glen Campbell, Kim Darby, Robert Duvall, and Dennis Hopper. He worked with the top stars of his day, including Gary Cooper, Randolph Scott, James Cagney, John Wayne, Shirley Temple, and Marilyn Monrose. The film was directed by Henry Hathaway, Hollywood director famed for his work on a long string of Westerns most notably in the 1950s and '60s. If LeBoeuf got to Tom first, LeBoeuf would take him back to Texas to stand trial for that murder, instead of Tom paying for the murder of her father.True Grit was certainly one of the most famous Westerns ever made. Another problem in Mattie getting what she believed was true justice was a Texas Ranger named LeBoeuf, who was also after Tom, but for the murder of a Texas senator. Despite Rooster's want to kill Lucky Ned, convincing him to take the job and to take her along - she insisting to ensure she got her money's worth - was more difficult than she had hoped. She had certain regrets in choosing Rooster if only because of his frequent take to drink. Believing she needed the assistance of a US marshal to carry out her mission, she decided, from the three suggested to her by the Fort Smith sheriff, to choose eye-patch adorned Rueben "Rooster" Cogburn, the most ruthless of the bunch, he being a man who generally shot to kill first before asking questions - in other words, a man with true grit. She learned that Tom most likely joined Lucky Ned Pepper's gang, had probably headed into the Choctaw Nation's territory, and that no one was after Tom for the murder. Headstrong, willful, streetwise and stubborn, she felt she was best equipped between her mother and her younger brother to lead the charge to avenge the murder of her father, Frank Ross, by hired hand Tom Chaney while the two were in Fort Smith, Arkansas to run errands, the murder occurring when Tom was drunk. Forty year old spinster Mattie Ross tells the story of when she was fourteen in the late nineteenth century, living in Yell County, Arkansas.
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