Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
DEATH VALLEY, Calif. — A Utah company has taken on a massive restoration project to bring a popular TV show featuring Ronald Reagan back to the small screen and to restore the show's Death Valley site inspiration.
It all starts with a 1930s radio program called “Death Valley Days" in the location that inspired it. Overlooking Death Valley, perched on the side of a steep mountain is the old Ryan Borax Mining Camp that was featured on "Death Valley Days." The nonprofit Death Valley Conservancy is restoring the entire camp to its 1920s look.
"Our goal is to return it to the original style of screen,” said Scott Smith with the Death Valley Conservancy.
In the 1930s, Ryan Camp operated as a hotel, and Utah-based Rio Tinto bought the place in the 1960s.
"We have 14 buildings that are in pretty much the same shape that they were when the site was operational,” said William Adams, legacy manager at Rio Tinto.
Rio Tinto is working with Death Valley Conservancy to restore Ryan Mining Camp as a gift to future generations.
"It really will have a quality that will transport them back to the time in the 1920s when people were living and working here in Death Valley,” Smith said. “They'll get a real feel for what it was like during that period."
From the heat of Death Valley to a very chilly place 200 miles away are the Hollywood Vaults that hold 452 episodes of the popular “Death Valley Days” TV show based off the radio program. It ran for 18 years in the ’50s and ’60s.
Ten thousand reels of film and audio are kept dry and cold at 45 degrees.
"Generally speaking, the preservation level is excellent,” according to Steve Wystrach, who manages the U.S. Borax film archives. He is supervising the restoration.
To think that (Reagan) was — just maybe 10 years after that — going to be president of the United States was a little bit amazing. Awesome, actually.
–Lynette Duensing, senior colorist at Cinelicious
At a nearby Hollywood film studio, Rio Tinto is spending millions to restore the old show. Lynette Duensing, senior colorist at Cinelicious, is adjusting the color “to give us an image that hopefully is like the original filmmaker intended."
The radio and TV shows were originally created by an advertising agency to promote 20-Mule Team Borax.
"It's about real events and places and people,” Wystrach said. “Every story is based on some true story."
The show revived the career of a fading movie star, Ronald Reagan.
Reagan put himself back in the public eye, hosting and acting in Death Valley Days in the early 1960s.
"To think that he was — just maybe 10 years after that — going to be president of the United States was a little bit amazing,” Duensing said. “Awesome, actually."
The restoration work will bring the show back on the air in January on the Starz network. Rio Tinto is also restoring it for the Library of Congress.
“They just need a copy that somebody could come into the library and watch,” Wystrach said.
Back in Death Valley, the plan is to open Ryan Camp for educational tours. It played a key role in the creation of Death Valley National Park; in 1933 the Borax company petitioned Congress to declare a national monument.
"It's the only national park in the U.S. that can say it has its beginnings growing out of the mining community,” Adams said.
The film restoration program will take about 3½ years, and Rio Tinto expects that phase of the effort to wrap up in 2017.
