The raft going over the rapids, where bulky stuntmen in petticoats double for Debbie Reynolds and Carol Baker.
The family headed in a wagon through Monument Valley for their ranch, taking the same direction-challenged route that Thelma and Louise would use decades later to head for Mexico.
And especially, the very end of the movie, when narrator Spencer Tracy is congratulating all the hardy pioneers who tamed the West, over footage of more spectacular scenery -- ending with an overhead shot showing the concrete jungle of highways in Los Angeles, the ultimate sign of civilization circa 1962.Seeing that image, I thought about the far-sighted Denverites who, just twenty years later, dedicated the 16th Street Mall, a mile-long pedestrian strip through the heart of downtown that banned cars altogether.
Today, the mall celebrates its thirtieth birthday, and its status as the city's number one tourist attraction. Sure, it could use more shopping options, and certain blocks look more parched than Monument Valley. But overall, this stretch of Western history continues to look like a winner.
In honor of the thirtieth anniversary of the 16th Street Mall, Westword writers recently went on their own mall crawl. See what they saw in "It's a Mall World, After All."
