There’s no state more Western than Wyoming, so when Hollywood Western legend John Wayne came to Casper in 1968 to shoot part of a movie, he instantly became the most exciting attraction to hit the Oil City since its first moving picture was shown in 1910.
Ironically, the movie The Duke was filming wasn’t a Western. “Hellfighters” was a modern action movie centered around a group of elite hotshots who put out oil rig fires.
Even more than a half century later, locals still remember the time John Wayne came to Casper, escaped an injury behind the camera and had a birthday bash.
Headlines in the Casper Star-Tribune in May 1968 prepped the city for John Wayne’s arrival to shoot a portion of Universal Studio’s $5 million “Hellfighters,” although the setting in the movie was Venezuela.
The film was loosely based on famous oil field firefighter Red Adair and featured Wayne as “Chance Buckman.” Much of the film was shot in Texas and the remaining third in Wyoming. Adair was an adviser on film.
“Tonight, starting at 8 p.m. — if the the wind doesn’t blow — filming begins on the Casper sequence of ‘Hellfighters’ at a ranch southwest of Casper,” the Casper Star-Tribune reported Monday, May 13, 1968. “Superstar John Wayne is not due in Casper until sometime Monday afternoon, and he is not on call for tonight’s footage and is expected to be on set.”
On Location
The ranch was Speas Ranch, southwest of Casper.
Susan Hunter, who now lives on the ranch, said her grandparents, William and Margaret Rae, owned it at the time of the filming. She was in college.
“We did not live in Wyoming at the time, but my parents did come up on vacation and they were out here when they did the filming,” she said. “I guess John Wayne was quite personable. He would come down and have coffee with my grandparents and several of the other actors, and actresses, too; Jim Hutton and Katherine Ross.”
Retired Iditarod sled dog race veteran Billy Snodgrass, of Dubois, whose family owned a neighboring ranch, said he was a teen at the time, and he and a buddy would ride over on their ponies to watch the movie-making action.
There were also hundreds of people who would park along Highway 220 during some of the shooting to get a glimpse of the activity, which would include setting fire to five derricks specially made for the movie.
John Wayne speaks with others on the set of the movie “Hellfighters,” which was shot partly near Casper on the Speas Ranch. (Courtesy Casper Area Chamber of Commerce Records at Casper College Western History Center) 
John Wayne listens during a conversation on the set for “Hellfighters” on the Speas Ranch southwest of Casper. (Courtesy Casper Area Chamber of Commerce Records at Casper College Western History Center) 
John Wayne poses on location of the movie “Hellfighters” shot at the Speas Ranch near Bessemer Bend southwest of Casper. (Courtesy Charles Morrison Collection at Casper College Western History Center) 
John Wayne checks out the set of the movie “Hellfighters” during filming in May 1968. (Courtesy Casper Area Chamber of Commerce Records at Casper College Western History Center) 
A camera man adjusts his camera on the set of “Hellfighters” moved which was partially shot on the Speas Ranch outside of Casper. (Courtesy Casper Area Chamber of Commerce Records at Casper College Western History Center) 
“Hellfighters” co-star Jim Hutton, center in red, on the set of the movie at the Speas Ranch, southwest of Casper. (Courtesy Casper Area Chamber of Commerce Records at Casper College Western History Center)
A Lot Of Fire
Universal Pictures brought a special effects man named Fred Noth out of retirement to do the movie, the Casper Star-Tribune reported. There were more than 20 special effects experts who worked on recreating authentic-looking oil rig fires.
To meet the requirements of the script that called for five derricks to be on fire at once, the special effects team laid out 3,800 feet of 4-inch pipe for diesel fuel, 2,800 feet of 2-inch pipe for propane and 2,200 feet of 3/4-inch pipe for pilot lights.
Expensive valves controlled the flow of the fuel to the five burning wells. The set reportedly could hold 121,000 barrels of diesel fuel and 27,000 barrels of propane.
On the first day of shooting, initially scheduled for May 13, the script called for a roaring fire at the Venezuelan oil field and “by the light it (the fire) throws,” viewers will see other derricks.
The field was in a valley and there were a group of Quonset-type buildings that represent field offices. Guerrillas were to come speeding in on jeeps, toss explosives and be chased by troops in trucks shooting at them. One jeep was to get wrecked.
At the conclusion of the attack, five oil wells were ablaze.
Snodgrass said the scenes that involved the fire were spectacular.
“Boy, it lit up the whole mountain. They burned those things down. They put so much fuel underneath them and set them on fire that it just melted those rigs,” he said. “It was great stuff. There were lines of cars on the highway to Alcova there watching those things burn down.”
Snodgrass, who lived on Goose Egg Ranch, said his family leased property from the Speas Ranch and had cows all around it. Actors would go the shooting site across their property in buses. He recalls one day a bus hit one of the calves.
“They felt so bad,” he said. “The whole entourage came out of the bus and all the actors came parading up to the house and apologizing, wanting to pay for the calf.”
With a young friend, Snodgrass said they would ride their ponies over to the movie set to watch the filming.
‘I Even Got To Throw The Football With The Duke’
“Once I even got to throw the football with The Duke,” he said. “He was in a break and got kind of a kick out of us kids, and so we tossed the football back and forth, and that was a pretty fun thing.”
During the shooting, Snodgrass also recalls that there was a birthday party thrown for Wayne, who was born May 26, 1907. That would’ve made it his 61st birthday.
Snodgrass and his buddy decided to contribute and went to a nearby spring where they knew there were trout, caught some with their bare hands, and brought them to Wayne as a present.
“He thought that was quite a deal, so he gave us a little Hellfighter figure that was on his birthday cake,” Snodgrass said. “I still have that, I think.”
In addition to Wayne, Hutton and Ross, the cast included Vera Miles, Jay Flippen, Bruce Cabot, Edward Faulkner and Barbara Stuart.
Faulkner and Wayne would spend part of their down time playing chess in a little hut on the movie set. Snodgrass said there was hole in the bottom of the floor that one of them. He thinks it was where Wayne would spit tobacco juice.
During one of the Venezuelan guerrillas and army scenes that involved Jeeps and fighting, Snodgrass said he and his friend rode their ponies out among the rocks and snuck out to where the action was happening.
“Because they saw us coming, they thought they would play a joke on us and they shot at us with these automatic machine guns, and away we went running down to our ponies, and I am sure they got a great kick out of that,” he said.
John Wayne, center, during a scene in the 1968 movie "Hellfighters" with oil rig fires burning in the background. (Universal Pictures) 
Some of the most spectacular scenes in "Hellfighters" were of a row of five oil rigs on fire, which was filmed on a ranch near Casper. (Universal Pictures) 
John Wayne, left, played the lead role of Chance Buckman in the 1968 Universal Pictures film "Hellfighters," which was partially shot near Casper, Wyoming. Also starring are Katherine Ross as Tish Buckman, center, and Jim Hutton and Greg Parker, right. (Universal Pictures)
Near Disaster
The Casper Star-Tribune reported May 24, 1968, that Wayne and his makeup man David Grayson were in his dressing trailer when it was slammed into by a catering truck.
“It slid in mud and toppled into the dressing trailer, breaking out several windows,” the newspaper reported. “Wayne and Grayson burst out of the trailer, startled but uninjured.”
After completion of the filming, Hunter said the crew left a lot of material for the set with her grandfather that he repurposed on other parts of the ranch. She said they installed two cattle guards for their road leading to the set, and those are still in use.
“There are still some remnants of where they filmed and we find things from time to time,” she said.
Hunter said she still has conversations with people who were parked along the road outside the ranch.
“That was a big deal,” she said.
Snodgrass said during the filming there was a big water reservoir set up and the studio had made a raft of six 50-gallon drums that served some purpose. They gave it to his family after the filming.
“And for years after that, we took it and towed it to our reservoirs and us kids, we spent years just floating around the reservoirs on the raft that they gave us,” he said.
A Story To Tell
Snodgrass remembers sailing in the South Pacific with friends years later and joining with 20 or 30 sailors from other boats one night for a get-together.
The topic of conversation involved, “Have you ever met somebody famous and tell your story,” he said.
“So, I was with some friends, and I got to tell the story of how, yes, I have met someone,” he said. “I’ve met John Wayne, who did a movie on our ranch. So, that was a fun time to be able to tell the story.”
In addition to filming at the ranch, a scene that involved Wayne flying into a South American airport was shot at what is now Barr Nunn and the old Wardwell airfield. Another scene where Jim Hutton picks up Katherine Ross at an airport was shot at Jackson Hole Airport.
A special showing of the movie for locals who were extras was shown at the America Theater on South Center Street in Casper on Dec. 20, 1968. The official premier was in Houston, Texas.
The movie received mixed reviews at its release. Snodgrass said he continues to watch it “every time it comes on.”
“There was even one scene where they showed a shot over one of our hay meadows and of our cows and everything,” he said. “I thought that was cool that our ranch got to be in the movie.”
Contact Dale Killingbeck at dale@cowboystatedaily.com
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
