John Wayne graffiti? We (might have) found evidence of the Duke in the wilderness

Did John Wayne leave his mark in the Central Oregon wilderness? Maybe – check out what I found!

by Leon Pantenburg

My hometown of Bend, Oregon is popular for virtually anything related to the outdoors, and is a popular setting for filming movies.

Naturally, local legends abound about the stars and their local interactions. One of the legends I’ve heard for more than 15 years is that John Wayne may have scratched his name on a rock in one of my favorite dayhike areas, near Sparks Lake on the Cascades Lakes highway.

I’ve been sorta looking for the site for quite a while. If I think about it when I’m in the area, I’ll look around different rocks. But last week, I stumbled across what may be the legendary graffiti.

Anyway, the story goes that Wayne was in the area during the filming of Rooster Cogburn in 1975. The film was shot in Deschutes County, west of Bend (for the mountain scenes), and on the Deschutes and Rogue Rivers for the whitewater rapids in the river scenes. Smith Rock State Park was a setting as well; the Rockhard/Smith Rock Climbing Guides building at the park entrance was originally built as a set for the movie, where it was portrayed as “Kate’s Saloon”.

Sometime during that time period, Wayne must have wandered down into the valley and scratched his name on a basalt rock.

According to a 1975  New York Times movie review:

“For John Wayne, who has the title role, “Rooster Cogburn” is a continuation of the part he played in “True Grit,” the film for which he was awarded his first (and fully deserved) Oscar. For Katharine Hepburn the film recalls her marvelous characterization opposite Humphrey Bogart in “The African Queen.” The role of Eula Goodnight, the pastor’s spinsterish Bible-quoting daughter in “Rooster Cogburn,” is a lighthearted spin-off of the earlier role, but the important word here is lighthearted, not spin-off.

“Miss Hepburn has been too long glum in her recent films. It’s good to see her looking as if she were having a lark for a change. Good causes (“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”) and art (“The Trojan Women”) are all well and good, but too much of that sort of thing can get even a good woman down.

“In “Rooster Cogburn,” Miss Hepburn has a roaring good time—so convincingly that you come to accept the movie on its own terms. It’s a cheerful, throwaway Western, featuring two stars of the grand tradition who respond to each other with verve that makes the years disappear.”

Hepburn, according to local legend, stayed near Elk Lake Resort, southwest of Bend, during the shooting. Her limo driver had orders to stop at Sparks Lake first thing in the morning so Hepburn could take a swim.

Several notable films have been made in Central Oregon, according to hubpages.com,  including: