The Hollywood Connection

Students of Buffalo Park history know that it was designed by Warner Brothers Art Director William Campbell.  But how did Campbell become involved?

The Hollywood Connection to Buffalo Park is all about "The Distant Trumpet," a low grade B-movie western filmed in mid-summer 1963 at various locations including Leupp, Grand Falls and The Painted Desert.  The typical large legion of cast and crew were in Flagstaff most of August and stayed at the Sentry Hiway & Americana motels. Campbell was Art Director for the movie.

Warner Brothers built a large set near Leupp that depicted "Fort Delivery" in the movie.

It's obvious from the archived material that Campbell produced some design drawings for Buffalo Park.  We learned more from an "Arizona Daily Sun" newspaper special edition published for the 1964 Pow Wow.

Source: "Arizona Daily Sun" June 26, 1964, Page 81.

Campbell's design work survives today with the iconic Buffalo Park entryway.
Above clipping courtesy Arizona Historical Society North Division
Buffalo Park archives via NAU Cline Library Special Collections. 

"The Distant Trumpet" was loosely based on a 626 page tome of the same name by Paul Horgan.  Although Horgan's 1960 book received good reviews, the movie was resoundingly panned by reviewers.  A "New York Times" writer said: "A deadly bore...so dull you even lose interest in watching the horses and the stunt men doing their stuff...Seldom has there been a Western picture on which so much money was spent...from which so little excitement, energy or colorfulness exudes. It's as though Mr. Walsh and everybody were bitten by tsetse flies and went through the business of shooting the picture in a state of drowsiness."

(Editor's Note: The Times review above makes mention of "money".  The film's budget was $3-million.  That's the inflation-adjusted equivalent of over $24-million in today's dollars.)

A modern reviewer went even farther: "It's like the director was making a big movie that was suitable for preschoolers; no sex, no realistic violence, no believable fighting, limited dialogue. In fact the plot and dialogue was so limited that preschoolers could have played the parts." This reviewer speculated, "This was director Raoul Walsh's last film, he was 77 years old; maybe his age, health, mental and physical stamina had something to do with the lackluster result of this final production."

"Arizona Daily Sun" September 27, 1963, Pg. 2

Obviously, we will never know how Campbell and his cohorts connected with Flagstaff Buffalo Park but they were in the city long enough to make a historic difference in the layout and visual appeal of the facility. From the inferences of the reviews and the age of the Director, we'd speculate perhaps Campbell and other crew members were bored and looking for something fun and interesting to do during their short sojourn in Flagstaff. The Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors visited the Fort Delivery set on August 5, 1963, and that's most likely when the connection to Campbell and crew was established.  "Arizona Daily Sun" Reporter Paul Sweitzer said the Chamber members shared lunch with cast and crew and "to a certain extent the visit was like the traditional 'old home week' ".

Sources:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058019/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Distant_Trumpet

The Hiway House was one of two motels occupied by cast and crew for "The Distant Trumpet."
An August 23, 1963, note in an "Arizona Republic" Page 10 column by Bill Nixon said,
"Approximately 500 persons spent more than a month in Flagstaff this summer on location." 

Additional photos regarding "The Distant Trumpet" follow the page break.  All were found on eBay.