Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve

Artists creating an on-location set for Academy Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone have defaced a natural limestone cavern in the eastern Mojave Desert, painting its pristine walls with phony Indian pictographs that workers have so far been unable to remove.

With the release this week of the Oliver Stone film, "The Doors," rangers at this remote Mojave Desert park expect the number of visitors to increase considerably. In the film, Val Kilmer portrays a doped-up Jim Morrison--the enigmatic lead singer of the 1960s rock group the Doors--encountering a holy man in a cave filled with mysterious prehistoric-looking Indian drawings.

When hard times during the Depression in 1932 forced Ida and Jack Mitchell to leave Los Angeles, they headed to the Mojave Desert. A new home was established 4,300 feet in the Providence Mountains, where Jack had been prospecting for silver and had bought some caverns. The Mitchells thought tourists might pay to look at the stalactites, stalagmites and other intricate limestone formations, so they built a dirt road to the site and erected stone buildings where visitors could spend the night.

Using an anti-graffiti cleanser, workers have begun scrubbing the walls of a Mojave Desert limestone cave inadvertently defaced by artists creating an on-location set for filmmaker Oliver Stone. State park officials said the cleansing process--which uses water, a nontoxic citrus-based detergent and a soft-bristle brush--should safely strip Mitchell Caverns of the 100 fake Indian pictographs applied by artists creating a backdrop for "The Doors," a film about rock legend Jim Morrison.

Using an anti-graffiti cleanser, workers have begun scrubbing the walls of a Mojave Desert limestone cave inadvertently defaced by artists creating an on-location set for filmmaker Oliver Stone. State park officials said the cleansing process--which uses water, a nontoxic citrus-based detergent and a soft-bristle brush--should safely strip Mitchell Caverns of the 100 fake Indian pictographs applied by artists creating a backdrop for "The Doors," a film about rock legend Jim Morrison.

With the release this week of the Oliver Stone film, "The Doors," rangers at this remote Mojave Desert park expect the number of visitors to increase considerably. In the film, Val Kilmer portrays a doped-up Jim Morrison--the enigmatic lead singer of the 1960s rock group the Doors--encountering a holy man in a cave filled with mysterious prehistoric-looking Indian drawings.

Environmentalists asked the filmmakers to go shoot elsewhere. But the movie company believed the mountainous setting was a perfect location. The Bureau of Land Management agreed under certain conditions, and issued the filmmakers a permit. Now, none of the parties appears satisfied.

Artists creating an on-location set for Academy Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone have defaced a natural limestone cavern in the eastern Mojave Desert, painting its pristine walls with phony Indian pictographs that workers have so far been unable to remove.

When hard times during the Depression in 1932 forced Ida and Jack Mitchell to leave Los Angeles, they headed to the Mojave Desert. A new home was established 4,300 feet in the Providence Mountains, where Jack had been prospecting for silver and had bought some caverns. The Mitchells thought tourists might pay to look at the stalactites, stalagmites and other intricate limestone formations, so they built a dirt road to the site and erected stone buildings where visitors could spend the night.