Coral Pink Sand Dunes was ‘Sahara Desert’ in 1943 -- And more history

 

                                A 1998 photograph of the Coral Pink Sand Dunes/

THE Coral Pink Sand Dunes is truly Utah’s mini version of the Sahara Desert.

Decades before Little Sahara Recreation Area, Coral Pink gained world-wide fame through Hollywood by actually depicting the Sahara Desert in movies as early as 1943 – all this without “Sahara” in Coral Pink’s name.

“Movie Company awaits approach of spring to resume filming ‘Battle of Africa” was a January 1, 1943 headline in the Salt Lake Tribune.

(Battle of Africa was a just a part of the movie being filmed at Coral Pink. The film was actually titled “Sahara.”)

In 1942, the State of Utah had constructed the first road off Highway 89 into the Coral Pink area. Hollywood was eager to showcase Utah’s colorful, sandy area.

                                               Kids playing at Coral Pink Sand Dunes.

“At any rate, coral pink sand dunes of southern Utah are a pride and joy of Hollywood producers,” the Tribune story stated.

Coral Pink was designated as a state park 20 years later, in 1963. It is located 27 miles northwest of Kanab in Kane County. It comprises 3,730 acres, including some 2,000 acres that are wholly sand.

(In contrast, central Utah’s Little Sahara Recreation Area, though much larger, at 60,000 acres, was not developed until 1976 and lacks such colorful sand.)

-During Utah’s Centennial of 1947, Kanab was often referred to as “Utah’s Hollywood.”

Indeed, the Piute County News of Junction, Utah, published a widely distributed graphic for the Centennial by the State of Utah that stated on June 6, 1947, “Everybody in Kanab, Garfield County, is a potential movie actor, when film companies come to use the scenic grandeur of the southern Utah country for location of movie westerns. Even businessmen close up shop to act as extras.”

(However, eventually Hollywood crews began bringing with them armies of personnel, including cowboys, for their movies, leaving most of Kanab’s 1,500 residents without much of a chance at movie work.)

-Harry Sherman, a Hollywood producer, chose the Zion National Park and Kanab area for scenes in a new movie, “Ramrod” in 1947.

 In the Salt Lake Telegram of February 6, 1947, Sherman said, “We spent weeks surveying the west by air and decided on Utah as having the greatest scenic grandeur of any area we saw.”

-How capable were some of the Hollywood actors that portrayed cowboys in actual cowboy skills? Some were really good.  “Hollywood turns actor to cowboy” was a November 16, 1942 headline in the Ogden Standard-Examiner. The story reported that actors Glenn Ford and Big Boy Williams were in Kanab filming “The Desperadoes” movie, in the summer prior, and they decided to enter a local Kanab rodeo during their off time, The two actors ended up winning the “rescue race” event at the rodeo, proving some real-life rodeo skills.

 

-MORE HISTORY: The 64-mile road from Kanab, Utah to Page, Arizona was primarily constructed in the late 1950s, in conjunction with the Glen Canyon Dam project. However, this highway wasn’t always Highway 89. According to the Salt Lake Tribune on August 2, 1959, the highway’s original designation was U-259 on the Utah road section and highway number 189 in Arizona. It was on August 1, 1959 when road crews in both states began using U.S. 89 as the highway’s consistent title. At the same time, the former Highway 89 road from Kanab south to Bitter Springs in Arizona was re-designated as Alternative U.S. 89.