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The ravine in 1885.

Endtrack

The end of the line.

Eastwood ravine

As "Eastwood Ravine" in 1985.

"Here. This spur that runs off the main line three miles out to Clayton Ravine. It's a long stretch of level track that will still exist in 1985. This is where we will push the DeLorean with the locomotive. Funny. This map calls Clayton Ravine, Shonash Ravine. That must be the old Indian name for it. It's perfect. A nice long run that goes clear across the bridge over the ravine - you know, over near that Hilldale housing development."
—Doc Brown consults the railroad map in 1885
"There were three sonic booms, and three flashes of brilliant light. And the DeLorean was traveling across the bridge. Except now the bridge was whole. Marty glanced down at the digital display, and saw that the current year was 1985. He was home. / The DeLorean coasted on to solid ground on the far end of the bridge, the friction of the metal railroad wheels slowing the car now that there was no longer a locomotive pushing it from behind. Marty was surprised how relieved he was to see the good old world of Hill Valley — his Hill Valley — one more time. The car was passing the cliff road, now. Wait a minute! The historic Clayton Ravine sign had changed. The new sign said it was called the Eastwood Ravine now — Marty winced — named after some big locomotive wreck in 1885. The DeLorean was moving too fast for him to read any more, but that was enough. He just hoped his time traveling hadn't changed anything else in 1985."
—From Back to the Future Part III by Craig Shaw Gardner (quote, pages 201 and 202)

Shonash Ravine, later known as Clayton Ravine (and, because of an alteration of the timeline, renamed Eastwood Ravine instead of Clayton Ravine) was a deep gorge to the southwest of Hill Valley.

History[]

Carson Spur led directly to the ravine and for some time simply terminated at its edge. A railroad bridge was constructed across it in Summer 1886 that led to town, near the future site of Hilldale on the eastern side of the ravine and the city.

In the original timeline, none of the Hill Valley citizens wanted to volunteer to meet Clara at the train station at the town meeting on September 4, 1885. So Clara decided to rent a wagon to take to her new house but snakes spook the horses causing them to run out of control resulting in her demise. After she plunged into Shonash Ravine, the people of Hill Valley decide to rename it Clayton Ravine in honor of the school teacher who fell into it.

After Doc accidentally gets sent back to 1885 after retrieving the almanac from Biff and burning it, he sets himself up as a blacksmith. At the town meeting he volunteers to meet Clara at the train station. Doc and Clara meet for the first time at the train station on September 4, 1885 and the two fall in love at first sight.

When Marty goes back to 1885 to save Doc from being shot by Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, things change again for the second time. On September 4, 1885, Dr. Emmett Brown and Marty McFly scoped out the ravine for a plan to return Marty to 1985. In the distance, they heard the screams of the town's new schoolteacher, Clara Clayton, in a wagon buckboard, whose horses had gone amok after being spooked by a snake. Doc and Marty saved Clara from falling into the ravine, therefore changing history.

After taking Clara to her house, Marty remembered from history class that the ravine was named after a school teacher who fell in there "a hundred years ago" (from his 1985 perspective), mainly because students wished that some of their teachers would fall into the ravine. In preventing this tragedy, Doc and Marty caused the site to keep the name Shonash Ravine until Marty's temporal displacement attempt on September 7, 1885, when it was thought he fell in with the train. By 1985, the ravine was then known as Eastwood Ravine, named after Marty's 1885 alias, "Clint Eastwood".

After being saved by Marty in 1931, Arthur McFly stays in a shack nearby Eastwood Ravine from August 17 to November 21.

In the 1986G timeline, First Citizen Brown had a secret lab near the ravine (which became Clayton Ravine again). He kept the damaged DeLorean time machine there for safekeeping, but after the events of 1986H, it was known as Eastwood Ravine again.

Theory[]

  • According to the FAQs, Shonash Ravine might have kept its original name after Doc went back to 1885, as Doc was able to keep his promise and meet Clara upon her arrival (prior to Marty's arrival to 1885). As such, she would not fall into the Ravine. (As the FAQ describes it, "If Marty were to go to the ravine in 1955 at the beginning of Back to the Future Part III (on his way to the Pohatchee Drive-in, for example), he would discover that the ravine is called 'Shonash Ravine'.")
  • The FAQ also offers the theory that if Clara had committed suicide by jumping off the ravine after Doc was killed by Buford Tannen, the sympathetic townsfolk would have renamed the landmark as Clayton Ravine anyway; Zemeckis and Gale wrote that they would "remain ambiguous about whether this suicide incident actually happened", in the answers to the FAQ.[1]
  • On Doc's tombstone in the Boot Hill Cemetery, it said that Clara loved him. This would be impossible if he hadn't met her in that timeline.

Appearances[]

Real World Location[]

  • The coordinates of the exact location are ⁦37°51'01"N⁩ ⁦120°31'05"W⁩;
  • You can search Google Maps for 37.850393, -120.518248 and see that some movie props are still there!

References[]

  1. Official Back To The Future FAQ - Back To The Future FAQ (see 'External links' below)

External links[]

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