Hopalong Cassidy ('Hoppy') was one of the great Western film heroes of the 1930's and 1940's. He was played by William Boyd, a silent film actor born in 1895. Boyd bought the rights to his movies in 1948 and began showing them on television, becoming a larger celebrity than he had ever been as a film actor. The 1941 film "Secrets of the Wasteland", shows how to cheat in a shooting contest with a "special" coin.

Hoppy has two partners in this film, Johnny Nelson is the romantic cowboy and California Carson is the comic cowboy. The film was made mostly in the Alabama Hills, a rocky area east of the California Sierra Nevada mountains, and the filming location for hundreds of movies, mostly Westerns. In this film, Hoppy guides a group of archaeologists into the Southwest to look at ruins. They encounter a settlement of Chinese immigrants along with some mild "oriental" stereotypes. The Chinese are hiding something and some sabotage the expedition. Some (white) bad guys are also roaming around as they think there is a gold mine in the area. The film has a happy ending as Hoppy, his pals, and the settlers finish off the bad guys, and the group finds out what the Chinese have been hiding. Early in the film, California makes a bet with a local man that he can shoot a hole in a silver dollar. California already has a silver dollar which has a bullet hole in it. The man takes the bet, California shoots it, but when it lands on the ground, he swaps a whole coin for the holed one, causing California to lose his bet. The Chinese are trying to hide a large agricultural enterprise. They don't have clear title to the land. Hoppy offers to take their deed into town and record it.

Naturally, one is a pretty girl

It appears to be some kind of film prop coin, not a real silver dollar.

Another 'prop' coin without a hole in it

The background appears to be the Mesa Verde National Park cliff dwellings.

Naturally, there is a dragon.

She explains some of the problems facing the settlers

The peak directly behind them is Mt. Williamson, at 14,475' elevation it is the second highest mountain in California.

California's highest mountain, Mt. Whitney, 14,495' elevation, is in the left background.

The peak is Lone Pine Peak, a 12,000' high peak in front of Mt. Whitney which is barely visible on the right.

William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy
Andy Clyde as California Carlson
Brad King as Johnny Nelson
Barbara Britton as Jennifer Kendall (archaeologist)
Richard Loo as Mr. Quan
Director: Derwin Abrahams
Writers: Harry Sinclair Drago
Based on the Hopalong Cassidy novels by Clarence E. Mulford