White Line Fever (1975): What Locations for the Beautiful Road Scenery?

[stevek64]

Originally Posted by echo7tango

That looks like another gem in SE AZ, from this image search:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Chir...w=1024&bih=672

Looks fantastic. Do these images correspond with your experiences, elko and Steve?

Echo, it is beautiful and I'm with elko on the beauty of it all. I've always liked national parks/monuments that are off the beaten path as I find they are much quieter overall too and this monument fits that bill, especially if you go in the off-season. I imagine the summer season might not be as crowded as other NP's/NM's but never been during that time frame. And in regards to the pictures, I think in person, like so many national parks/beautiful areas, it's far more impressive in person that pictures can't begin to capture. But the pictures do give you a good flavor of the general feel of the place. Another thing I liked about it is the walking trails we took, especially one of the main one's(sorry, don't remember the name), brings you right into the heart of it all. We've been to the vast majority of parks in the west and the spires that you see in the monument are very unique. Definitely worth a visit, I'd highly recommend it! And this discussion about the monument has inspired me to get back there soon also.

[teddyearp]

Like I said, SE AZ has a lot of great stuff. Figure east of Tucson and south of I-10.

[Speedbump61]

Watched White Line Fever today, opening scene Phoenix enterview. Love Arizona. Areas I'm most familiar with in late 70's was Benson, Saint David, Wilcox, Sunazona, Ashcreek, Elfrida,Tucson and Tombstone. BTW Saint David was my favorite place we lived for a very short time. The house we lived in had a picture window almost the entire length of the room with the view of just the desert I really enjoyed Tombstone as well.
Anyway, I'm not sure what road or interstate it was but from Benson to Wilcox was Texas Canyon and some of the most amazing rock formations I had seen in awhile afer living in Oklahoma for 8 years. Did some hiking in the local parks and again amazing rock formations, one particular park had names for the formation like "Punch and Judy" rock. Whenever I see a movie that's in a desert I instantly think of Arizona. Just had to say, I loved this movie because of the countryside. Arizona is a beautiful state. Moved from Oklahoma to Arizona and backing Oklahoma again. Loved the drive back and forth from OK to AZ and back to OK again. Arizona through New Mexico was gorgeous. Never got to visit the Grand Canyon the 3 years I was there.

[grad_student200]

Originally Posted by echo7tango

Okay, so White Line Fever (1975; Jan-Michael Vincent, Kay Lenz) is a campy movie - hey it's the 70s, right? I remember being a young kid of 14 when it was released to the theaters, and with my paper route earnings I went to see it. But it was on TV recently and I'd forgotten that the scenery of the trucking on-the-road scenes is really beautiful.

The credits say it was filmed entirely in Arizona, and I recognized Monument Valley, but yet still there were several other road scenes showing monument-like formations that led me to ask, "Wow, where is that? And where is that?" I'd like to find those places, for some possible future road trip. I love Monument Valley and have been there a couple of times. There's only one highway through it, US-163, so that's already solved. But what are the other highways and areas shown in the film? On IMDB (White Line Fever (1975) - Filming Locations - IMDb) some locations are listed (and pasted below) but they are vague and general. I'd like to know what roads, highways, and areas were in the movie? The scenes looked like they were on US or AZ state highways. Lots of small 2-lane highways. None of the interstate scenery looked interesting.

Below are locations identified in the IMDB Lovations link above. I removed the city / town / urban locations, and also Monument Valley. If you're familiar with any of these locations or with the movie, please share details of where I can find the movie's beautiful scenery. Ideally, include a link to an image search's results.

- Saguaro National Park, Tucson, Arizona
- Sierrita Mountains, Arizona
- Navajo Nation, Arizona
- Green Valley, Arizona
- Sonoran Desert, Arizona
- Mount Lemmon, Arizona
- Rincon Mountains, Arizona
- Santa Rita Mountains, Tucson, Arizona

Especially if you're familiar with the movie and its scenery, please share. But it's an old movie that came out 42 years ago, so it may have been a while since you've seen it. If you like the southwest USA landscape like I do, check out the movie! (But turn the volume down because the music is beyond campy.)

Thanks!

I saw the edited TV version of that movie in my childhood. I was born and raised in rural Arizona. My high school played many games all along Central and Eastern AZ and even far Southern AZ. I also went to the University of Arizona for graduate school and lived in different parts of Tucson for a year. Right away, the part of the film that sticks out to me is the general region along Ina Road leading into Picture Rocks Road.
In addition, I am indigenous from the Four Corners Region and grew up on a rural reservation. My ancestry in the area goes back many hundreds of years if not longer.

When people from rural parts of Pinal County, Gila County, and Navajo County go into Tucson from the north, they typically use Highway 77. There used to be a couple of booming copper mining towns in that area - San Manuel and Hayden. That 77 merges into North Tucson and eventually gets to Ina Road. From there, go west and it goes across I-10 then into Picture Rocks Road in the Saguaro Park. Keep going and you'll see Marana. If you go south you can get to "Old Tucson". If you go north, it goes back to I-10 via Marana. That general area is in the movie.

As for Santa Rita Mountains, there are two general areas of interest. The I-10 region going towards Benson is one way to view the scenery. The local tribes used to go to the mountains north of that region to pick acorns long ago. Another route is I-19 towards Nogales. Near Sahuarite there is a good view of the mountain range. I wouldn't recommend going off on a rugged dirt road common in the area unless you have a 4x4 and experience in driving in such terrain. It's easy to get stranded out in those rural desert roads of AZ if one is unfamiliar with how to travel in such rugged terrain. There are often out-of-state tourists who get stranded from underestimating the road conditions. It would be best to stay on the highways. Note that some parts of rural AZ also don't get good mobile phone conditions.

You could hike into some of those mountain areas. I used to go jogging all the time in Saguaro Park near Picture Rocks Road. It has many sandy washes which the local Spanish speaking population refers to as "arroyos". There are many hiking trails in that area. But this time of year there could still be rattlesnakes. I know how to jog in such areas and spot snakes easily to avoid them because I grew up in rural AZ. There is also the occasional Gila Monster, a rare poisonous lizard. One time I went running in Saguaro Park and came across the mostly eaten carcass of a javelina with just a little bit of hide and a hoof left. There were lots of blood. It looked like a mountain lion had mauled it. There are also lots of dear with big racks in that park since there is no hunting allowed.

Mount Lemmon is just north of Tucson and the highest peak in the area. A narrow, winding highway goes up which is popular for tourists. A lot of outsiders think AZ is one dry desert. One guy on FB boldly told me "There is NO WATER in TUCSON". But Sabino Falls is just north of Tucson and had been a major source of water for tribes in the area for hundreds of years. That guy on FB was an outsider who just didn't know the area. There are also springs that local tribes knew of near Tucson. Hence, the word Tucson is actually derived from an indigenous word for a "place with water" - a natural spring that had been used hundreds of years ago.

A lot of tribes from AZ are familiar with those sites you posted. Just know there are local superstitions about "leeriness". Much of rural AZ was populated with devout Christians like Mormons, Catholics, and Protestants (e.g. Lutherans). The tribes also had their religious beliefs. All of that merged into a general local "fear" of the historic "cursed" route 666 along the Four Corners Region that was open up into the 1980s. The road was notorious for accidents and bizarre weather events like surprise sand storms, dangerous monsoons, or even icy conditions in the winter. The mountains of eastern and central AZ get snow because they are high in elevation relative to Tucson. A similar "leeriness" of local people with family roots that go back generations includes the Superstition Mountains near Gold Canyon just east of Apache Junction towards Superior. There are numerous documentaries on the history of those areas.
https://www.therooseveltreview.com/n...evils-highway/

A lot of those areas in the film had once been roamed by "Nneeh". It is also familiar to descendants of early Colonial Spaniards who often intermixed with local indigenous groups resulting in mestizos or castizos. To me, it was a film that was based near Tucson just by the way it ended. The film was popular in rural AZ because it was made there and also because the actors were well known from previous western films. John Wayne had casted Jan Michael Vincent in his classic "Undefeated" of 1969. Slim Pickens was also well known in drama and comedy with "Blazing Saddles". It was a good thriller movie set in my home state.

If you want to see a comedy film that also highlights Phoenix before its massive growth surge then watch "Used Cars" with Kurt Russell of 1979. It was filmed in Mesa, Tempe, and what had then been the "rural outskirts" of East Phoenix (lol) which is now a suburb. I remember my family driving by the set in my childhood.