• John Wayne was born Marion Morrison in Winterset, Iowa.
  • He grew up in Southern California and became a movie extra and then an actor after losing his scholarship to USC in the 1920s.
  • Wayne bought 4,000 acres of farmland between Maricopa and Stanfield in the late 1950s.
  • He partnered with local cotton farmer Louis Johnson, who managed Wayne’s farm. The two later merged their properties and started 26 Bar Ranch. Both now have roadways named for them in Maricopa.
  • Wayne and Johnson moved into the cattle business in the 1960s, running a feedlot near Maricopa and the ranch near Springerville.
  • One of Wayne’s favorite watering holes was Table Top Tavern in Stanfield.
  • Johnson’s wife, Alice, put Wayne on a weight-loss program for his movie roles.
  • At the peak of the Wayne and Johnson cattle partnership, they had 85,000 head.
  • Wayne died of cancer in 1979.
  • El Dorado Holdings CEO Mike Ingram successfully campaigned to have a portion of State Route 347 (Maricopa Road) named John Wayne Parkway.
  • The Duke Golf Course draws its name from Wayne’s nickname. Some streets within Rancho El Dorado – Sagebrush Trail, Rio Grande, Rio Lobo, Cahill and others – share names with Wayne movies.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR