Superman 1978: Cemetery Scenes

The quest: search out locations in Alberta used in making the blockbuster movie Superman 1978 for a series of Then & Now posts. Or rather a do-over of Then & Now posts. The Team did a good number on this very subject far in the past but it’s time for a refresh. More in a moment. Today, we look at the cemetery scenes from the film, where Pa Kent, after perishing from a heart attack, is laid to rest. Stay tuned for more like this.

The players today include Ma Kent, a young-adult Clark Kent and the setting is the fictitious community of Smallville Kansas*. Fast forward to the present, and Team BIGDoer has paid this very site a visit recently, a couple times in fact. For one, it’s with Caped Wonder Superman Podcast members Jim Bowers and Jay Towers. What a grand time!

Where: it’s a stunning location, on the edge of a valley overlooking a little community sort of tucked away down there. There’s a few houses marking the town, a meandering river and trees. Lots of trees. Wait, on the prairies? It’s an oasis of green and very unpraire-like terrain. There’s farmed fields as far as the eye can see up top and then out of nowhere, it’s interrupted by this deep cut.

It’s not Smallville and we’re not anywhere close to Kansas, but rather looking down on the little community of Beynon Alberta. It’s easy to see why the movie producers choose this location and these scenes were made memorable thanks to this stunning view.

In the screen captures, Pa Kent has just been buried and his family mourns. Soon after, Clark Kent leaves the farm for the city lights of Metropolis, with a stop at the fortress of solitude along the way, where he’s transformed into the Man of Steel. His devoted love for his adopted father and subsequent loss are the catalyst for him becoming the Caped Wonder.

The cemetery is a set and built explicitly for the film and not a real one reused for filming. The church is smaller than it appears and for the most part just a façade. Beynon below might be real but everything up top was put in for the movie and then removed when done.

How little has changed. The cemetery lands are as they were and the valley below much as it appeared in the film. The grain elevators are gone – sort of and we’ll have more on that in a moment – the railway line’s gone, but all else seems timeless. The houses, the trees, the roads, they’re the same and it’s as though in that regard, the clock has stood still. Over thirty five years have passed (filming actually took place in ’77) and it looks no different.

Beynon’s two grain elevators, prominent in the valley shot, are long gone. While still present during the filming of Superman 1978, one got torn down and the other moved off the property, soon after appearing in the film. The Alberta Wheat Pool, on the right, dates from 1928, closed about 1982 and soon after demolished. That’s a fate of so many old grain elevators – tear them down and be done.

The second, in the colours of the United Grain Growers (UGG), is a little older (so 1923) and interestingly, survives to this day. Moved away, the elevator plus its annex extension were separated and relocated to two nearby farms. For grain storage. FYI: an annex, present on both elevators in the movie screen capture, is an addition added at some point to increase capacity. Farmers reusing grain elevators is not unheard of and remember they are a frugal bunch.

The annex off the white elevator is located not far from our shooting position and easily visible from this point. To the west-northwest-ish. It appears to be in decent shape, but it’s not clear if it’s still used for grain storage or not anymore.

The elevator is bit further way and with a little squinting can be seen from the cemetery location. Sort of northwest-ish from there. So while it’s no longer down there in the valley, both sections are still visible from the filming location, but from completely opposite angles.

The former Beynon UGG elevator appears solid and well maintained. It’s marked for Grand View Farm and like the annex, we’re not sure if it’s still used. It plus the annex are both easily seen up close if one uses the north approach road to Beynon. Neither are far off the road and are the tallest things around. You can’t miss them.

It must have been a herculean task to move them up out of the valley using the steep road. It’s quite the grade. This elevator closed about the time Superman 1978 premiered and moved off shortly thereafter.

The railway line in the valley below still hosted trains back when the movie was shot, but by the time of our visits, long gone. The track runs or rather ran right behind the grain elevators as it snaked down the Rosebud River Valley. You’ll note the old roadbed, and a bridge, gives the impression the tracks might still be there.

We’re looking at Canadian National’s (nee Canadian Northern or CNoR built under the charter of the Alberta Midland Railway) line between Calgary Alberta and Saskatoon Saskatchewan. So the Drumheller Subdivision along here and it dates from the early 1910s. Most of the Alberta section closed about fifteen years ago due to high maintenance costs (60 plus bridges over the Rosebud River, in this valley alone) and insufficient online business.

The railway did a good bit of end-to-end traffic right to the very end, but between Calgary and the Saskatchewan border, it was hindered by a lack of customers. They rerouted trains via the Edmonton to Calgary line and saved themselves a bundle in upkeep.

Beynon goes back about a century and while calling it a town today might be a stretch, there was more here back in the day. They once had a general store, post office, tiny school and a small cluster of homes, plus the elevators. It’s all gone save for a few old houses. Most of the land down there functions as a nature preserve and this done to protect the area from development.

The inspiration to reshoot this Then & Now (originally done back in 2013) comes thanks to a visit to the site with the Caped Wonder Podcast crew. That’s author and Superman (original franchise) expert Jim Bowers and broadcaster/media personality Jay Towers. They came up from the States and Chris showed them a few Superman filming locations. The cemetery scenes included and look for the shy half of Team BIGDoer in the Caped Wonder Podcast archives.

At about this moment we decided it’s time to reshoot this piece and in the future we also have plans to do others from this series. There’s a whole lot of Superman 1978 comparisons in our archives, but they’re bad and need redoing. Keep an eye open for more.

Jim gifted his book “Superman: the Richard Donner Years” to our little history group and it’s a treasured addition to our library. It’s bursting with many behind the scene’s photos from the making of the Superman 1978 and Jim kindly posed with a copy while at the cemetery site. Note it’s open to the pages showing production shots from the cemetery scenes.

While exploring with Jim and Jay, and completely by accident, a little plaque made from a flat rock was discovered hidden in the grass. It’s clearly been here for some time, and while too faded to read, flakes of red and yellow paint are seen. These are the colours used in Superman 1978 for the “S” emblem and it must be here to honour the movie.

Also, something was noted on this first visit underfoot, a disturbance in the soil that looked suspiciously like a grave. Like the outline of a plot and we pondered whether it’s something deliberate or not. Also to honour the movie? On purpose?

It seemed so and it left all of us curious. This only made the desire to come back and reshoot the Then & Now all the greater. If it lined up, it had to be with intent. Guess what? It does and see for yourself in the comparison photo. It’s right where Pa Kent’s grave appears in the movie and that’s pretty incredible. Placing it so accurately would require some thought and planning.

It now begs the question who put it there, the true intent and were they also responsible for the painted rock? This movie location’s not well known and there can’t be many of us out there this obsessed. Who but a Superman 1978 super fan would go to such lengths?

There was too much going on to attempt to shoot the Then & Now while exploring with Jim and Jay, so the Team returned a week or two later to. At sunset and that’s our favourite time of day to photograph. An ugly haze hung in the air from distant forest fires, on both visits, but by shooting with the sun low on this second pass at least rewarded us with a “bit” of colour. Understatement and the sky was electric.

Red, orange, purple – it’s beautiful and always leaves us in awe.

Connie duplicated Jim’s book shot, sort of, on this subsequent visit. There’s some behind the scene’s shots on those pages and we’re standing right where they were captured. That’s a special feeling and one we can’t get enough of.

Images from the movie are thanks to Warner Brothers Entertainment and the actors seen are Jeffrey East as Clark Kent plus Phyllis Thaxter as Ma Kent.

*The cemetery is clearly marked Smallville in the film but it’s never directly stated that Beynon below is in fact that community. Still, the scene suggests it in some ways and it’s confusing. As tiny as Smallville is when portrayed in the film, it’s not Beynon Alberta tiny. In Superman 1978 Barons Alberta (mostly) doubles for the Kansas community and it’s got a population of a few hundred. Give or take. Beynon, at the time of shooting the film, would have a population counted on one or two hands.

Know more (new tabs): Superman 1978 Movie and The Caped Wonder Superman Podcast.

They’re saying…

“OTBPwC&C is a brilliant concept. Thank you for enriching our lives with so many engaging and entertaining posts. Five stars all the way.” Erin Bay.

Then & Now overload…
JB Fletcher’s Ainsworth BC ~45 Years Apart. Little change.
Coleman Alberta (Sam’s Service Station). Some change.
Downtown Bawlf Alberta. Lots of change.

Something to say and no one to say it to? Go here: Contact Us!

Date of adventure: August and September, 2023.
Location: A Super Place.
Article references and thanks: Jim Bowers + Jay Towers of The Caped Wonder Superman Podcast, Canadian Trackside Guides and the book Akokiniskway, by the River of Many Roses.

Superman 1978 Cemetery Scenes and note that one grave.

The reverse view is stunning – Clark & Ma Kent top photo.

The white grain elevator still exists.

So does the annex!

Author Jim Bowers & his book “Superman, the Richard Donner Years”.

Amazing colours on the second visit.

Is this Pa Kent’s grave?

A stunning sunset thanks to smoke from distance forest fires.

A chance find in the grass – a memorial to Superman?

Behind-the-scenes photos from this very location.