Tarantula: Miners to Movies at Dead Man’s Point

The movie Tarantula featuring the small desert town of Desert Rock, Arizona, and a giant tarantula was actually filmed in Apple Valley, California. Many of the scenes were shot at Dead Man’s Point. It was the fourth biggest film at the box office in December 1955. The movie’s tagline said, “More terrifying than any horror known to man comes a creeping crawling monster whose towering fury no one can escape!”

The sci-fi hit was produced by Universal-International years before computer generated imagery became commonplace. Other sci-fi movies, It Came From Outer Space, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and Creature from the Black Lagoon all come from that wonderful sci-fi director Jack Arnold.

ImDb explained the plot by saying, “A spider escapes from an isolated Arizona desert laboratory experimenting in giantism and grows to tremendous size as it wreaks havoc on the local inhabitants.” Remember, the road to hell is paved with good inventions. See what we did there?

Composite photo of Dead Man’s Point from Bear Valley Road courtesy of John Earl, Google Earth and Universal-International, 2013.

Dead Man’s Point is a natural rock formation that lies at the junction of State Route 18 and Bear Valley Road between Apple Valley and Lucerne Valley about 11 miles east-southeast of Victorville, California.

How did it get its macabre name? The most popular theory is that nearby Dead Man’s Hills from certain angles resembles a man lying on his back with his hands clasped over his chest as if expired, although there were several unrelated men’s bodies discovered in the vicinity in the late 1880s.

The June 2023 edition of The Mohahve Muse reported Dead Man’s Point received a historical marker on April 30, 2023, called Miners to Movies erected by the Clampers (E Clampus Vitas.) Thank you to Dennis Parker, the Noble Grand Humbug, who constructed the creative metal sculpture and supplied booklets, commerative patches and t-shirts for the special event.

Unfortunately, it didn’t take long before vandals defaced the monument with bright red paint on the concrete. Soon after the monument was re-painted, somebody attempted to pry off the spider web base along with sawing off the spider’s legs attached on top of the monument. They were apparently unaware the sculpture was reinforced with rebar deep within, and were mostly unsuccessful. One metal leg was hacked off but left behind at the scene of the crime.

Marcy Taylor, president of the Mohahve Historical Society, and owner of the Apple Valley Legacy Museum since 2015, was able to retrieve it at the site. The sculpture has since been reluctantly removed by a sheet metal worker at the behest of Mr. Parker to protect it from further attacks. A more robust metal sculpture is currently being constructed by the artist. We hope it will return to its rightful place at Dead Man’s Point soon.

Dead Man’s Point. Crossroads, Highway 18 and Bear Valley Road, 2013.

While this innovative solution would have worked, it was more fun watching jets fire missiles instead. Photo composite courtesy of Universal-International and John Earl, 2013.

The spider that portrayed the giant tarantula later appeared in The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) as the Goliath spider threatening the diminutive man.

Tarantula grossed $1.10 million dollars, a figure quite impressive in the mid-1950s.

The pivotal scene at Dead Man’s Point was where an uncredited handsome young jet pilot saved the day by blasting the giant arachnid into smithereens. His name? Clint Eastwood.

Apparently the uncredited Clint Eastwood got “mad dog mean” when it came to giant spiders, a reference to his much later starring role in The Outlaw Josey Wales. Photo courtesy Universal-International.

Bonus Trivia: Experimentation with computer graphics and animation began as early as the 1940s. Leading the charge was John Whitney, a pioneer in digital art and animation, who experimented with mechanical animation techniques on custom-made devices built from WW ll anti-aircraft machinery. The first time that CGI appeared in a film was with Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo in 1958 and the use of patterns for a 2D animation. 

Above Photo: Desert race at Dead Man’s Point in about 1969. The 15 year-old fellow in the dark leather jacket on the Triumph, briefly leading the pros, used to be me. I think I finished this particular race second to last in my class, which is pretty much where I finished most races if I didn’t crash first. As I recall, there were about 400 or more riders in this particular race and “Rocket Rex” Staten was likely the winner, because it seemed he won most of them. ~John

Note: We were contacted by Cathy Wicks soon after we published this article. It turns out the pro behind me in the yellow satin vest was her father, Carl Steven. Cathy’s Mom, Vera, and Grandma, Gladys Smith, fondly known as Granny Honey, sewed vests for their motorcycle club, The Desert Challengers. That way they could identify them from the crowd of other riders. Sadly, Cathy lost her Dad in May of 2018. We’re glad our photo brought Cathy and her family good memories of race day with her Dad at Dead Man’s Point. ~John 

In real life, the California Tarantula , Aphonopelma chalcodes, also known as the desert tarantula, is a very docile native spider. Tarantulas are not poisonous to humans, though like all spiders they have venom that is effective on small arthropods for subduing their prey. While female tarantulas can live for up to 25 years, the average lifespan of the male is only seven or eight years.

Disclaimer: To our knowledge, Dead Man’s Point is on private property. The historic marker is opposite Dead Man’s Point across Bear Valley Road, where there is ample parking.

Topmost Photo courtesy of Universal-International.

Directions:

24700 California 18
Apple Valley, CA 92308   

Coordinates: 34°28’21″N   117°7’28″W