Monument Valley is on the Utah-Arizona border inside the Navajo Nation Reservation, and until the 20th century, it had barely been visited by non-indigenous people. But when John Ford made Stagecoach — the 1939 blockbuster that mainstreamed Western movies and the actor John Wayne — that all changed. More filmmakers followed suit and used the location as their movie backdrop, creating a deep association between Monument Valley’s iconic landscape and the mythic American West.
How Monument Valley became a symbol of the West
Monument Valley is on the Utah-Arizona border inside the Navajo Nation Reservation, and until the 20th century, it had barely been visited by non-indigenous people. But when John Ford made Stagecoach — the 1939 blockbuster that mainstreamed Western movies and the actor John Wayne — that all changed. More filmmakers followed suit and used the location as their movie backdrop, creating a deep association between Monument Valley’s iconic landscape and the mythic American West.