West of Continental Divide is Gallup, NM...El Rancho Hotel, Gallup, New Mexico, is a historic hotel built by the brother of film director D.W. Griffith. It is located on old U.S. Route 66 and became the temporary home for many Hollywood movie stars. It is on the Trails of the Ancients Byway, one of the designated New Mexico Scenic Byways. El Rancho, which was opened in 1937 by R.E. “Griff” Griffith, brother of the famed movie director D.W. Griffith. The Griffiths encouraged filmmakers to shoot movies in the Gallup area, and the hotel benefited by having a bevy of stars — including John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Errol Flynn, Kirk Douglas, Gregory Peck and Humphrey Bogart — stay at the hotel during productions up to the 1960s.
