Recognize this sign, specifically the angel wings?
If you're a movie buff you've probably recognized it from
Cast Away, the 2000 release starring Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt. Hanks plays a FedEx globetrotting troubleshooter who, after a plane crash, is stranded on a small island.
The angel wing motif was the trademark of the artist character who lived at this ranch and who sent and received pkgs. from FedEx. She was a metal sculptor and her husband was in Russia, their relationship a very tiny but interesting detail of the plot.
This is another shot of the gate and the barn where she worked on her pieces.
The house was featured again near the end of the movie, in the scene where Tom Hanks stood on the porch and knocked on the door. When no one answered, he left the package--which had the angel wings on it, and which also was featured throughout another large part of the movie-- and a note saying the package had saved his life.
I don't think anyone was there; it's now a
bed and breakfast but there were no cars or other vehicles other than the farm trucks and tractor in front of the barn.
I did take a photo of this new marker:
Why is it that Texas signs look like Texas belt buckles (or vice versa) and are as big, bright and shiny as our womenfolk's hair-dos? Just like the stars, deep in the heart, I guess. I took two shots of this new sign and both had the reflection of a big doofus in them, I haven't yet figured out just what causes that.
At the
IMDB Cast Away listing, there are quite a few message threads about this movie; some, like far too many one sees on the 'net, are full of inane comments, but there are other posts that speak of how profoundly the movie affected them (as it did me) or asking questions about the movie such as "where was the island?" as well as "where is the farm house?"
One guy who posted on the IMDB site
has a website with some very nice photos including many I did not get, such as the interior of the house, a close-up shot of the note Hanks' character leaves at the end and autographed later by the actor. The note is on Arrington Ranch stationery, by-the-way.
(the site loads slow, even for me with a fairly fast connection; it's also in a "turn the page" style slideshow, a little tricky at first. It's a great site, though, sure worth a look if you're interested in seeing more of this particular bit of movie trivia)
I didn't go on to the intersection where Hanks' character was standing at the end of the film, but I stood in the middle of the dirt road in front of the house and took a couple of shots. The next shot is looking North, back the way I had come from Hwy 60, the turn off being 12 miles or so east of Miami in Hemphill County, another dozen or so miles to the northeast lies the larger town of Canadian.
This is looking South, showing a bit of how the terrain is at that particular spot, gentle rolling hills, great pasture land. We've had twice the normal amount of rain and the fields are fairly green and lush but this day was so hot the moisture was being sucked out of every living thing, including myself.
I'm not for sure what the attraction would be to stay out there; the road is fairly busy, what with a fair amount of oil field activity and even though I'm "oil field trash" and know you have to break some eggs to make an omelet, the unsightly scars left on this beautiful landscape by the fresh caliche roads and well locations, tank batteries and other production equipment pretty much spoils the view and beauty. I could make out the tops of three drilling rigs from the next hill over, so at least this area is benefitting from a robust economy.
Still, the house IS picturesque and has quite a bit of interesting history. It wouldn't be hard to imagine living there a hundred years ago. This shot doesn't do justice to the beautiful southwestern sky as it filled up with enormous thunderheads with tops reaching up to 30-40,000 feet. The rain would be welcome sight, but tornados often come during these exact same conditions and from this direction. I'm sure they have a basement or storm cellar and back when it was built it probably had a root cellar or some underground, cool place to store canned items and smoked and/or salted meat. You couldn't miss it, turn right at the outhouse.
I'm not sure what there would be to DO out there, either. (I kept thinking that getting to sit on the front porch in the shade and snap green beans might have been the highlight of a day back then) I hadn't been out there in a long time, not since I was helping to drill wells back in the late 70's and early 80's, but even without the ugly signs of progress, there's not much to see out there, just those rolling hills broken by some gullies and wash-outs that collectively don't quite deserve the name "canyon". If you wanted to brave the rattlesnakes, you could probably find some wild plums to pick, but I can't think of any other recreation out there unless it would be stealing oil field equipment or rustling cattle.
(Edit to add: I shouldn't be so harsh about there being "nothing to do" out there. To be honest, there's all sorts of wildlife to see such as antelope, deer, raccoons, many species of birds, etc. You'd still need to keep the rattlesnakes in mind if you go traipsin' off down in those gullies )
There's certainly no 7-11's within a dozen miles nor is there cable TV and I'm not so sure about land line phone service. The closest place to buy a beer would be just across the state line in Oklahoma, probably another 30 miles, or back to Pampa, over 30 miles back the other direction.
What one did while staying there would depend upon whom one was staying there with, I suppose. That's probably also the reason, that being not much to do, that old ranch families had so many children.
You can read more about the B&B on the
Arrington Ranch website. The Trip Advisor website has a
review on the lodgings.
(back when I was roughnecking around the area, I worked with some local boys named "Farrington" and they were always going around adding an "F" to all the Arrington signs. That's been years and years...and years and years ago, the statute of limitations has run out)
The sky was threatening some severe weather, so I headed back into Miami. Not too far out of town a van got right on my tail and wouldn't back off. The speed limits drop severely as you drive into Miami and I certainly wasn't going to get a ticket being the first one in a close convoy not of my making just to satisfy someone's impatience.
He stayed almost on my bumper right into town, right into the 35mph limit and first chance I got I grabbed my camera to take a photograph; I had to turn it around and look at the LCD window in my rear view mirror and still try to keep an eye on the road.
Seeing my camera, he eased off; guess he thought I was doing it to turn him in, and I would've if he'd been more aggressive and not backed off, but I took it because I couldn't believe what sort of truck it was...and you'll prob. have to click the pic. in order to make out the company logo on the front of the delivery van:
If you can't make it out, here's a cropped bit of the original photo above, at the highest resolution.
Yup, was a FedEx truck.
Wonder if that was Tom Hanks driving?
For those of you who have found this post via a Google search, you *may* be interested in a followup post on the intersection that leads to the ranch house. It was shown at the first of the movie, and a longer scene at the crossroads ended the film.
Cast Away Crossroads
1/12/09
Interesting article about the history of the house, plus some photos of it and the intersection
In PDF format
09/16/09
Added a new post about the locations
Cast Away Locations in Google Maps
