A home movie produced by Kath and Ken Ellwood of a 6000-mile road trip from their home in Rochester, New York to Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam in Nevada following completion of their internships at the Eastman Dental Dispensary. Travelling westward in a second-hand Chevrolet they visit the Badlands and Mount Rushmore National Parks in South Dakota, climb the summit of Beartooth Mountain in Montana before moving onto the Devils Tower National Monument and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming....

A home movie produced by Kath and Ken Ellwood of a 6000-mile road trip from their home in Rochester, New York to Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam in Nevada following completion of their internships at the Eastman Dental Dispensary. Travelling westward in a second-hand Chevrolet they visit the Badlands and Mount Rushmore National Parks in South Dakota, climb the summit of Beartooth Mountain in Montana before moving onto the Devils Tower National Monument and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. They go camping beside Jenny Lake inside Grand Teton National Park visiting the Chapel of the Transfiguration before moving onto Bryce and Zion Canyon National Parks in Utah before ending up in Las Vegas to capture some of the cities famous neon signs lit up at night. Title: 6000 Mile Tour of the USA Credit: Filmed in colour by Kath and Ken Ellwood Sitting in his garden Ken Ellwood flicks through colourful brochures for Cadillac, Chevrolet and Lincoln motorcars. He gets up and wave at his wife as he comes around the side of their home. Ken walks over standing beside a ‘Safety Tested’ banner outside an ‘OK Used Car’ lot in Rochester, New York. He and Kath looks over some of the cars for sale changing to Ken drives up to their home on Barrington Street in their new Chevolet, they work together to polishes the car, including the hubcaps, until shiny. Phantom car ride approaching a tollbooth at the New York State Thruway then turning onto the highway west towards Buffalo. The journey west continues along roads and freeways passing farms and rural America as well as a sign welcoming them to Ohio and another warning them about the Indiana Speed Limit. They cross an arch bridge over a wide river, possibly the Sherman Minton Bridge over the Ohio River continuing their journey west. At dusk a neon sign for the ‘Sunset Motel’ changes to the car parked up alongside a flooded river or wetland. They continue west across the Great Plains stopping to look at a derelict stagecoach beside the road. Ken walks over to a covered or prairie wagon and looks inside. Writing on it reading ‘Museum Murdo S.D. [South Dakota]’. Kath takes a walk, a water tower in the distance has the name of the town written on it ‘Murdo’. They continue their journey across the Great Plains stopping at a road sign that reads ‘See The Badlands Straight Ahead’. Several cars have pulled into the Cactus Flat gas station, a family make their way inside. The gas tank is filled, and Kath looks over the engine, their journey continues. From a promontory Kath looks out at the eroded buttes and pinnacles of the Badlands National Park in southwest South Dakota. Ken walks up to another lookout point to admire the view. He sits down and points out across the landscape. Back on the road they pass other eroded buttes and pinnacles. They pull into a car park and go for a walk with Ken climbs to the top of one escarpment waving at his wife below. Back at the car Kath takes a drink before heading back onto the highway. They stop again to film a rocky ridge. A Native American man dressed in buckskins and wearing a decorative war bonnet comes around a tepee set up on a car park beside a store. Kath comes out of the store wearing a war bonnet, a beaded neckless and carrying a ceremonial pipe. She waves the pipe at the Native American who looks confused, he takes the pipe from her and poses for the camera beside her. He then helps her remove the beaded neckless. He then poses with a small boy wearing the war bonnet. Kath stands beside a wooden building, several signs are attached to it reading ‘Sioux Craft Shop’, ‘Navajo Rugs’ and ‘Lakota Masopiye’. The Native American man now poses with two small children outside the tepee. A carved wooden sign for Mount Rushmore National Memorial changes to the massive sculpture itself carved into Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills region of South Dakota. Ken walking towards it changes to visitors outside Mount Rushmore Museum. Back on the road the car drives through a tunnel dug through a large bolder and along winding roads through woods heading towards The Needles inside the Black Hills mountain range. A road sign reads ‘Granite Point EL 6300 FT’ and the car pulls into a car park at Sylvan Lake, part of Custer State Park, where Kath and Ken go for a walk around it. At Mount Moriah Cemetery in the town of Deadwood visitors look at the grave of Wild Bill Hickok, they also gather around a nearby information booth. Back on the road a range of wooded mountains in the distance with a fence in the foreground next to the road. At sunset the sun disappears behind the distant horizon as the car continues its journey west. As the car travels along a country road the Devil’s Tower can be clearly seen in the distance. Now much closer Kath approaches a barbed-wire fence to get a better look at the tower. Closer still a wooden carved sign for ‘Devil’s Tower National Monument’ followed by Kath sitting directly underneath the butte. In a nearby field Kath attraction the attention of a nest of Gophers who’s appear from the holes to investigate. Back on the road the pass into Montana with the snow tipped Rocky Mountains the distance. They drive into the mountains with the snow increasing around them, their journey is interrupted by workmen and an excavator working on the road. Pulled off the road Kath places snow on the overheated car radiator while a topless Ken goes sliding around on a bank of snow. Higher still they look back on the landscape below followed by Kath stands beside a sign marking the summit of Beartooth Mountains, elevation 10942ft. A tourist brochure for ‘Wyoming: Wonderland of the West’. A hand opens it turning to a page dedicated to the Teton Range and Yellowstone National Park. A second leaflet for Yellowstone is placed on the brochure and a hand points to an image of a bear knocking over a metal bin. The Yellowstone River flowing through a rocky landscape and a deer running away into a wood. From the car a Black bear and her cubs walking beside the road changes to Kath and other visitors look down a deep gorge onto the Yellowstone River flowing below. A hand belonging to Kath feeding a nut to a Chipmunk. At a campsite a small crowd watches as another Black bear scavenges through a waste basket watched over by her cubs. One of the cubs walks on hindlegs beside a tent, the other climbs a nearby tree. From a viewing area the waters of the Yellowstone River flow over Tower Falls crashing onto rocks below, nearby another Chipmunk. Back at the road a second Black bear watches her cub up a tree, she walks up and down the road passes a line of cars stuck in a jam sitting on occasion on a bank of snow. In the near distance a Mule deer stands in a pool of water watching before running back into the forest. From a vantage point Kath looks down onto the fast-flowing Yellowstone River passing through a deep gorge changes to Lookout Point where the river flowing over the Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone waterfall. From the top of the waterfall visitors look out from a viewing platform. Ken and Kath follow a path that follows the river downstream and Kath looking out from the viewing platform of the water cascading over the falls below. Steam and mud bubble up from a geyser changes to a sign for the Continental Divide and a second sign pointing towards both the Pacific and Atlantic Drainage. Another Black bear crossing the road changes to a Park Ranger speaking into a megaphone to a crowd of visitors standing beside Vault Geyser. A boardwalk crosses the Upper Geyser Basin and Old Faithful building up to and erupting. From a road inside Grand Teton National Park the snow covered Teton Range in the middle distance. A motorboat crosses Jenny Lake changes to a man gutting a fish on a jetty. Kath stands beside a tent erected under trees, in the background their car. A Lupine meadow surrounded by forest and the snow-covered Grant Teton in the distance. Wearing a cowboy hat Ken places travelling mattress inside the tent, Kath sits on a log writes in her diary. They take a motorboat out across Jenny Lake, a small read ‘Teton’ flag flutters on the bow of the boat. Back on dryland they go for hike past Hidden Falls following Cascade Creek. Sitting on a rock Kath playfully feeds a Chipmunk which climbs on her eating food from her hand and laid on her boot. Below Jenny Lake and the snowy peaks of Grand Teton above. Kath walking through a meadow of Arrowleaf balsamroot and a gopher or equivalent sits on a rock watching. A snake crosses their path and Kath follows another path along the creek. Ken walks over and take photographs of the Chapel of the Transfiguration, two women stand in the doorway of the church. Inside a cross on the church alter is silhouetted in the foreground against the peak of Grand Teton in the background. Outside again and in the distance a herd of Bison. Another tourist brochure this time for Zion, Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon National Park. A hand underlines ‘Bryce Canyon’ and turns to the page in the brochure. Kath stands looking out across the crimson-coloured spired shaped rocks, part of Bryce Canyon National Park in southwest Utah. A small sign reads ‘Navajo Look Trail’ and a large group of tourists follow it through the park. Kath in her cowboy hat looks up at the strangely coloured formations while Ken takes a photograph. Several pine trees growing in the rocks and visitors walk a zig-zag path to the top of a ravine. At the top Ken walks past the ‘Navajo Look Trail’ sign seen previously changes to the sun setting over a distant mountain range. Back on the road they pass through a tunnel dug into a sandy hillside. A ’Hi-Way Map’ and a finger pointing at Zion. The map is opened revealing images and text for Zion National Park in southwest Utah. Ken and Kath drive into a tunnel coming through the other side to reveal Zion Canyon. Insects collect nectar from a Sacred datura changes to the steep red cliffs that make up the canyon. Kath points up at a rocky ridgeline followed by the Virgin River flowing through the canyon. Back on the now desert road they pass a sign for the ‘Apache Hotel’. Another tourist brochure this time for Las Vegas, Nevada. Again, a pair of hands opens the brochure to reveal ‘A Whirl of Fun and Excitement’. The brochure is closed again and a finger points to the words ‘night-time fun’ written across the bottom. The neon sign for the ‘Golden Nugget Gambling Hall’ along Fremont Street in Las Vegas lit up at night. Other establishments are also illuminated with colourful neon signs including the ‘Pioneer Club’ with neon cowboy sign of ‘Vegas Vic’ waving at passers-by. A ‘Nevada Highways’ map for 1954, inside a hand holding a pen points out the route from Las Vegas to Henderson. A second brochure for the Hoover Dam changes to show the dam itself in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River. Kath looks down on the river from the dam and Ken takes a drink of water from a nearby drink fountain.