By LARRY BLEIBERG / The Dallas Morning News

PARAMOUNT RANCH, Calif. – It was the O.K. Corral, the playground of the Dukes of Hazzard and the workplace of Bob Hope, Mae West and W.C. Fields.

Now Paramount Ranch is protected as part of the nation's cultural history. The 750-acre tract is part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Ranger Mike Malone tells visitors about the property's film heritage during twice-monthly walks. The park, he says, is one of two in the National Park Service directly linked to film history. The other: Thomas Edison's lab in West Orange, N.J., where the inventor perfected movie film technology.

Mr. Malone carries a book of movie stills, including one from the 1935 film Code of the West, showing a man on horseback under a tree. We're standing next to the same valley oak right now, he notes. The man? That's Jackie Coogan. The former child actor, who later married Betty Grable, is best known now as Uncle Fester from the Addams Family television show.

The ranch was purchased by Paramount Studios in 1927 and has been used on and off ever since. During the 1950s and 60s, it was home to television westerns such as Cisco Kid, Gunsmoke, and Bat Masterson. In 1991, CBS adopted the site for Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and crowds came to watch the filming.

More recently, the property was used in Van Helsing and Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

It's not uncommon for park visitors to have their walks or bike rides interrupted by shouts of "Rolling!" echoing across the hills. But because the area is public property, visitors can be restricted from an area for only a few minutes at a time during actual filming.

Some historians believe the ranch is the best remaining link to Hollywood's golden age. It has been mentioned as a possible United Nations World Heritage Site, a designation held by Stonehenge and the pyramids of Giza.

Hiking paths acknowledge the history. The Backdrop Trail, for one, is named for its route through a landscape favored by directors because it lacks telephone wires and can be used as a backdrop for nearly any scene.

As he walks through the park, Mr. Malone uses stills to note how the area's rolling fields have been everything from Bedrock in The Flintstones' Viva Rock Vegas to North Africa in Beau Geste to ancient Asia in The Adventures of Marco Polo.

"It's the magic of moviemaking," he said. "Your mind tells you this is China, and you believe it."

©Dallas Morning News.