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Western film star Wm. S. Hart could be found in the lobby of the St.

George Hotel, during a rainy Christmas season. (Ross Eric Gibson collection) Left to right:: Margery Wilson, Wm. S.



Hart, and villain Robert McKim. (Ross Eric Gibson collection) A movie poster for "The Primal Lure." (Public domain) Wm.

S. Hart reacts badly suspecting Margery Wilson of theft. (Ross Eric Gibson collection) The Indigenous Sioux actors were friends of Wm.

S. Hart. (Public Domain) Western film star Wm.

S. Hart could be found in the lobby of the St. George Hotel, during a rainy Christmas season.

(Ross Eric Gibson collection) On Friday, Dec. 3, 1915, the New York Motion Picture Co. of Los Angeles sent director Cliff S.

Smith and Mr. Knight to Santa Cruz to scout locations for their new movie “The Primal Lure.” They met with Mayor Fred R.

Howe, chamber president Samuel Leask, and Santa Cruz News editor H.R. Judah, for assistance.

Director Smith negotiated with San Lorenzo Lumber for logs with the bark still on, to build log cabins and a trading post called Fort LuCerne. Then he and his men scouted locations with Henry Cowell, placing Fort LuCerne at a site now part of the San Lorenzo Valley High School athletic field, erecting a native Blackfoot Village in De Laveaga Park, plus a redwood-and-fern section of Big Trees Forest for a canoeing scene on the San Lorenzo River. It was a rainy Sunday in Santa Cruz, Dec.

12, 1915, when a large group of movie people got off at the depot, and were conveyed .

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