Albumen print by G N Barnard from the album assembled by John Downes Rochfort. Union Army soldiers sit at the top of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, ca. Though the studio employed over 250 people, its existence remained unknown to the general public until the 1990s. Northern end of Lookout Mountain is the center point of this image, with the town of Wauhatchie and Lookout Creek to the left and Chattanooga Creek. Additionally, Hollywood stars like Walt Disney, Marilyn Monroe, and even Ronald Reagan were given special clearance to use Lookout Mountain’s facilities, though the reason for their visits remain undisclosed. Employees from big studios, such as Warner Brothers and MGM, were also known to frequent the lot. Less scandalous, there is evidence that the military conducted many advanced research experiments for Hollywood studios, such as developing 3-D techniques and Vista Vision.
That’s 500 more films than Hollywood produced during the same period, and only a few dozen of them have been declassified. While the Air Force contends that these atomic features were the only movies made, it is believed that some 19,000 “films” were produced on Lookout Mountain between 1947-1969. From the fire lookout on the summit, enjoy 360-degree views of Mount Baker, Mount Shuksan, and a panoply of other North Cascades giants. During this time, cameramen, who referred to themselves as “atomic” cinematographers, were hired to shoot footage of atomic bomb tests in Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and the South Pacific. To get panoramic views of the North Cascades without fighting the crowds at Cascade Pass or Hidden Lake Lookout, look no further than Lookout Mountain, an arduous climb that often gets overlooked by hikers heading to North Cascades National Park.
The studio was secretly established in 1947, though the Air Force has since stressed that the facility was used solely for the Atomic Energy Commission. But still a military compound, it also featured a bomb shelter, a helicopter landing pad, 17 climate-controlled vaults and two underground parking garages. Like any other film-making compound in Hollywood, the 100,000 square foot, fully-operational studio featured soundstages, screening rooms, film-processing labs and even an animation department. Known as Lookout Mountain Air Force Station, or Lookout Mountain Laboratory, what made this studio special is that the films produced there were all classified.įor twenty-two years, the military operated its own studio on Wonderland Avenue in Laurel Canyon, the former home of many artists and the 1960’s folk-rock scene that included The Doors, Joni Mitchell, the Mamas and the Papas, as well as filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Los Angeles, California is the epicenter of the movie-making industry, so it should come as no surprise that the US military had its own studio in LA.
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