In 1917, the most famous woman in the world came to Boulder Creek to make a movie. Mary Pickford was earning $10,000 a week plus half the profits, enough that her distributor built a whole new company around her releases. Cecil B. DeMille directed.
The film was A Romance of the Redwoods, and its exteriors were shot near Boulder Creek on the Poverty Flat set, a fake gold-rush town a film company had built here two years earlier. Unlike most silent films made in these mountains, this one survives.
What was filmed here
The Santa Cruz Silent Cinema research site states it directly: "The exteriors were shot in northern California near Boulder Creek, in Santa Cruz County, on sets built by the California Motion Picture Corporation."
Those sets were Poverty Flat, the roughly 25-building mining town that George Middleton and Beatriz Michelena put up on family land outside Boulder Creek in early 1915. In A Romance of the Redwoods it plays a fictional camp called Strawberry Flats. When you see the town in this film, you're looking at a structure that stood in Boulder Creek.
What was not filmed here
The stagecoach holdup sequence, one of the film's set pieces, was shot in Ben Lomond, at a spot UCSC's researchers have not identified. Ben Lomond is seven miles down Highway 9 from Boulder Creek.
The surviving record supports a limited scene breakdown: the town exteriors are Poverty Flat near Boulder Creek, the stagecoach holdup is Ben Lomond, and the interiors were studio work.
Why DeMille came to the redwoods
In 1916 Pickford negotiated a deal worth roughly $10,000 per week against 50 percent of the profits, with Artcraft Pictures Corporation formed specifically to release her films.
The story is a Gold Rush romance: Pickford as a young woman who travels west to join an uncle and finds a road agent living under his name instead. It needed a mining camp and mountain forest. Southern California was already the industry's center by 1917, but a standing, purpose-built gold-rush town in genuine old-forest country was a real asset, and the California Motion Picture Corporation had one sitting in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
It was also early DeMille. The Biblical spectacles that define his reputation were years away. In 1917 he was a working director building a résumé, and this was one of many films made in Santa Cruz County during that period.
What Boulder Creek looked like to a film crew in 1917
The town they came to was a lumber town in decline and a resort town on the rise. The railroad still ran to Boulder Creek. Big Basin had been California's first state park for fifteen years. The big mills were running out of accessible old growth, and the valley was learning to sell scenery instead of board feet.
For a production, that combination was ideal: rail access for people and equipment, hotels and boarding houses that could absorb a crew, local labor experienced with timber and teams, and forest that photographed as wilderness within a short haul of a working town.
The local papers covered the visit. The Santa Cruz Evening News of 12 March 1917 reported that "lovely Mary Pickford and her select group of twenty-five film players" would arrive that Wednesday and put up at the Casa del Rey. The same paper had asked on 3 March why there should not be a reception for her, and covered her brother Jack's company arriving that week too.
The company stayed at a Santa Cruz hotel, not in the valley. The article confirms the party's arrival and size, while the location record places the town exteriors at Poverty Flat and the holdup scene in Ben Lomond.
Where to see it
A Romance of the Redwoods is one of the rare survivors. Silent Era records a 35mm positive at the George Eastman Museum and a 16mm reduction positive at the Mary Pickford Institute for Film Education. Preserved prints surface occasionally in archival and silent-film festival programs.
A 1931 nitrate fire in the California Motion Picture Corporation's San Rafael vault destroyed nearly everything else shot at Poverty Flat. The surviving Pickford feature still shows the false storefronts and roofless cabins that once stood outside Boulder Creek.
Share a production record
If you have a 1917 Mountain Echo clipping, a family account from an extra or crew member, or paperwork identifying the Ben Lomond stagecoach location, use the contribution link below.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Mary Pickford film in Boulder Creek?
Yes. UCSC's silent cinema research states that the exteriors for A Romance of the Redwoods (1917) were shot near Boulder Creek on sets built by the California Motion Picture Corporation, the Poverty Flat set.
Which scenes were shot in Boulder Creek?
The town exteriors, standing in for the fictional Strawberry Flats. The stagecoach holdup sequence was filmed in Ben Lomond, and interiors were studio work. A complete scene-by-scene breakdown hasn't been established.
Can I watch A Romance of the Redwoods?
The film survives. A complete 35mm print is held by the George Eastman Museum, and the Mary Pickford Institute for Film Education holds a 16mm reduction print. It appears occasionally in archival and silent film festival programming. Copies of varying quality circulate online; we don't link to uploads whose rights we can't verify.
Can I visit the filming location?
No. The Poverty Flat set was dismantled, and the probable site is private residential property with no marker or public access. This site doesn't publish a location for it.
Did Mary Pickford live in Boulder Creek?
No. She came for a production, and no record cited here establishes a residence in Boulder Creek.
What else was filmed at the Poverty Flat set?
At least eight productions between 1915 and the early 1920s, including The Lily of Poverty Flat (1915), The Half-Breed (1916), The Flame of Hellgate (1920) and Soul of the Beast (1923). Most of that footage was destroyed in a 1931 vault fire. The Poverty Flat history follows the set itself; A Romance of the Redwoods is the surviving chance to see it move.
