Death Valley Days at the Western Legends Round Up Festival

The theme of the 2016 Western Legends Round Up Cowboy Lifestyle & Film Festival in Kansas, Utah is Death Valley Days. Some may remember Death Valley Days as the television show President Ronald Reagan performed on in 1955.

UO Special Collections and University Archives holds the Ruth Cornwall Woodman papers, creator of Death Valley Days, which includes:

“radio and television scripts for “Death Valley Days,” and other television scripts and miscellaneous papers, 1914-1916, 1930-1969. The collection includes scripts and associated material for 204 “Death Valley Days” radio and television programs, an index to the scripts, notebooks from summer research trips, and correspondence with Death Valley acquaintances. There is also research data and a draft for The History of the Pacific Coast Borax Company, which was published in greatly reduced form. Correspondence includes copies of forty-six letters written from Vassar College, 1914-1916, and correspondence with agents and publishers.”

View the finding aid here.

The Encore Western television channel is now showing episodes of Death Valley Days. Episodes can also be viewed on the ACM TV YouTube channel. There are two other collections related to the Ruth Cornwall Woodman papers – one is held at the Autry Museum of the American West in Glendale, CA and the other is at the Death Valley Center in California.