Wagon Master is a 1950 Western film directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., Joanne Dru, and Ward Bond. Learning of their ability as experienced horsemen, Mormon Elder Wiggs , hires Travis Blue and Sandy Owens to guide a small group of Mormons across the West to the San Juan River country in southeastern Utah Territory, in 1849. Ford formulated the story, and then Patrick Ford and Frank S. Nugent wrote the script. Ford and Merian C. Cooper were co-executive producers, with Lowell J. Farrell as associate producer. Music was done by Richard Hageman, and the picture... was distributed by RKO Pictures. Ford had been shooting the film She Wore a Yellow Ribbon the year before in Monument Valley, near the town of Mexican Hat, Utah, close to the locations where he had also filmed Stagecoach , My Darling Clementine , and Fort Apache . He wanted a different look for his next film and drove to Moab. Wagon Master was shot in less than a month, in 1949, for less than a million dollars.
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