Kanab, Utah

Kanab, Utah is hidden in the south central part of Utah - a mere five minutes from the Arizona border and two hours closer than a recent trip I took from Virginia Beach to the African nation of Ethiopia.

In short – or should I say long — Kanab is not the easiest place to access. This past week I accompanied my business partner John Runberg on a new business pitch to see if we could help the county of Kane, in which Kanab resides, with advertising and marketing assistance. One of nicest things about this place is you are no more than an hour away from the jaw-dropping beauty of Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Lake Powell, and the north rim of the Grand Canyon. The bad thing is I was only there for about twenty hours, eight of which was spent catching a few z’s in the Canyon Lodge hotel whose rooms were slightly larger than an elevator.

We entered Kanab from the south on highway 89 after driving three hours from sin city. The town is bordered on the north by 200 foot tall mesas that look like the cross sections of flank steak, media rare. When the sun sets, they glow orange. Kanab is quiet place this time of year as if it’s resting before the onslaught of tourists looking to check major parks off their lists.

About 100 yards south of our hotel is a small landscaped park with rocks and shrubs strategically arranged around a small, fake waterfall. Atop the rocks is a stature of man, hands positioned as if he should be holding something or gesturing “I don’t know.” The man’s name is Levi Stewart. How appropriate for my first blog post of 101 places in 501s.

It turns out Levi was a Mormon, no surprise there being as though this is Utah. In June of 1870, THE Brigham Young instructed Levi and his family to head south and form a settlement in Kanab Utah. So, he sold all of his possessions and settled here where directed the planting of crops, set up a lumber mill, was made first Bishop of Kanab. Sadly, a fire broke out six months later at Fort Kanab and took the lives of his wife Margery and five of his sons. Levi passed away in June of 1878 and was preceded in death by his wives Melinda and Margery and 14 of his 29 children.

Wow, 29 children. It’s amazing he ever found time to settle this place.

Kanab became known as “Little Hollywood” in the 1930s through 1960s and was the location of many movies I’ve never heard of like “The Dude Ranger,” The Shepherd of Hills,” and “Black Bart,” and quite a few I have like “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” “The Broken Arrow,” and the “Planet of the Apes.” TV series like “Lassie,” “The Lone Ranger,” and “Gunsmoke” were filmed here. High-yo silver, no way!. There’s even a Little Hollywood museum in town which I didn’t have time to visit.

Who? Just one of the many placards paying homage to movie stars who filmed westerns here

Kanab is proud of their movie making history. Throughout the town, there are placards along the sidewalk featuring black and white portraits of stars that graced this part of the county and the films that they were in. I recognized only a handful — and before long–the names and bios will have little or no relevance to anyone. Fans of westerns are dying off. The genre peaked. Fame is fleeting. And I’m craving a beer.

The Dog House Tavern is located in a 1960s-era gas station; the frames of its service bay doors still visible. It’s painted in army tank green and a six –foot high lattice fence practically hides the front of the structure from the street. We entered though the back, which oddly enough is the only way in and were greeted by the owner, a fifties-ish woman named Melanie. Put a whistle around her neck and she would remind you of stereotypical high-school gym teacher. She had close cropped grey hair, spoke with authority and friendliness and her skin was slightly flushed as if she just got through leading a class in Calisthenics.

“It’s called the Dog House Tavern because it’s a place for men to go when they are in the dog house,’ she explained. “To tell you the truth, I love dogs more than I love men.” Walk into the bar area and this becomes very apparent. Framed headshots of dogs named Alf, Amos and Dixie adorn the walls like movie stars. There are stickers that say “celebrate you wag,” and “my dog walks all over me.” We are the only people in the place and take seat at the bar and Melanie turns out to be a great host telling us about the town, a spring Greyhound dog parade (Blur of Fur), when tourist season kicks into full gear (May 14) and how this place used to be a gas station first, then a flower shop, then a bike shop, then a bar named “Laid Back Larry’s and now “The Dog House.”

The menu is limited: Three beers on tap, three types of vegan pizza, three ways to get a baked potato and one way to get a wrap. “It’s not often that the cowboy types enjoy eaten vegan, but they are beginning to like it,” she says proudly.

It’s getting late by east-coast standards and considering it took a half a day to get here, John and I grab a burrito at a Mexican place called Escobar’s and call it a night. And, in true advertising agency fashion, we haven’t even started to work on our presentation which is scheduled to Friday at three.  

Most of Friday was spent crammed into one of the tiny hotel rooms at the Canyon Ranch working on a Power Point Presentation. To celebrate Levi Stewart, founder of Kanab, and the fact that this was the first of my 101 places in 501s, I wore my Levi’s to the presentation, did my spiel, and drove back across the desert to Las Vegas for a red- eye flight home.

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