What is: Alamo Village, Bracketville Texas, was a movie set and tourist attraction north of Brackettville, Texas.
What was: It was the first movie location built in Texas, originally constructed for and best known as the setting for The Alamo (1960), directed by John Wayne and starring Wayne, Richard Widmark, Laurence Harvey and Frankie Avalon.
When James T. “Happy” Shahan began construction of the film set in 1957 the goal was to create a facade of the town. The plan expanded, augmenting buildings with roofs, floors, and four walls, made of real adobe and brick, resulting in a functional replica of a western town. The set included a full-scale re-creation of the Alamo compound as it would have appeared in 1836, as well as a western village including a cantina and restaurant, a trading post, an Indian store, a church, a jail, a blacksmith shop and more. The set won the American Cowboy Culture Award in 1998.
One of the main street buildings would be turned into a John Wayne Western Museum with celebrity galleries since the site was also open as a tourist attraction. As a once thriving Western-style attraction visitors could go on hay rides, watch staged gunfights, trick roping exhibitions and other activities.
For years after the 1960 Alamo production, Shahan preserved the set and, over the years, over a dozen films about the Alamo have been shot there. In addition, over 100 other western movies as well as documentaries, music videos and commercials have been shot using various parts of the set. Frank Thompson, a film historian, noted that each production changed the set in some way, big or small, and that the changes appear in each new movie about the Alamo, documenting the current view of authenticity over time. The 2004 Disney movie about the Alamo was not shot on this set, but in a new set built in Dripping Springs, Texas. films about the Alamo have been shot at this location. In addition, over 100 western movies (eg Bandolero, Barbarosa, Lonesome Dove and Gone to Texas) as well as documentaries, music videos and commercials have been shot using various parts of the set. Source: Wikipedia
In January 2018, there was a liquidations sale of all of the props.
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