Does this look like a western movie set? I think it does. I looked out from the balcony of my room at The View in Monument Valley the other afternoon as clouds began to fill the skies and what I saw made me feel as if John Wayne, in full western regalia, might suddenly appear on horseback and ride across the valley. The first John Wayne western I ever saw was a black and white film on my family’s 1949 era 12 inch Philco TV set and it was probably one of the many John Wayne westerns filmed in Monument Valley. But as I looked out at the mesas, the old time western vibe I felt was not black and white but more of a sepia look so I used Nikon’s Charcoal Picture Control setting when I took the photograph to give it that old time feel. John Wayne was on my mind because earlier in the day, we visited the Goulding’s Museum down the road from The View where the history of Monument Valley’s starring role in movies over the years was explained. The first western filmed here was “Stagecoach” in 1939 due to the efforts of Harry and Leone Goulding who owned a trading post adjacent to the Navajo Reservation in Monument Valley. The Navajo Reservation suffered during the Depression in the 1930’s. The Gouldings convinced a movie producer they encountered to use Monument Valley as the setting for his movie to help the local economy and the Navajos. As result, movie productions have been a local presence ever since then.