Travels With Abs - "Kanab, Utah"

Kanab, Utah, is a sweet little town that, by chance and hard work, became a favored site for the making of western movies. We stayed at the Parry Lodge in the Frank Sinatra room. All the rooms are named for movie stars but, we learned later, Sinatra never stayed in our room. He stayed at the Parry home.
One movie was filmed in Kanab in the 1920's and Parry made it his mission to spread the word. He took a lot of photos and traveled to the 4-5 movie moguls to tout the town. They bought the idea and many western movies were made there over the next few decades. One of the last ones was "Josie Wales..." Filming the people traveling in one direction, then filming them in the opposite direction made it seem that they had traveled a long way and to an entirely different area. That was part of the beauty of filming in Kanab and the surrounding areas.
The people of Kanab rose to the occasion and became extras and stunt men just doing the things that were an ordinary parts of their lives - roping, riding, wrangling, etc. The Parrys arranged entertainment, including the townspeople in the festivities. Thus was born a successful business.
So, we had an interesting and restful time in Kanab. Went swimming, did laundry, and went to a local church on Sunday mornng. The church was a mixture of Methodist, Lutheran, and, United Church of Christ (DOC). Quite friendly and informal. Recently completed, this little church was a result of people working together to make it a reality. I was told that the Mormon people helped, even though they had no vested interest. That's one of the nice things about a small town.

Saturday night, we went to a screening of one of the old movies filmed in the area and almost made it through the whole thing. It starred Tom Mix, a young Tom Mix, and had a lot of hroses, riding, and the always loaded six-shooters in it.
We were only 1 1/2 hours away from our destination, but did not need to be there until Monday.