Valley Hi, Loop 410 at Medina Base Road, 1968-1980, 6300 Medina (Debbie Perry April 2001)

Intelligence indicated no remains would be found as the theater had been bulldozed at some time in the past.  This proved to not be quite true as we found the remains of a speaker pole, various slabs of concrete which may have been a floor, or perhaps part of a screen, patches of gravel and asphalt.  Most incredible, we found what may have been part of the wiring to the lighting system.

I'm reasonably sure that the field we were in was the location of the Valley Hi.  We found a short style speaker pole with the two hangers for the speakers leaning against an old tree.  Aside from that most of what we found was short stretches of pavement that looked like roads.  We were unable to establish any rhyme or reason to the layout of the theater.  I found a 1995 ariel photo of the lot were the ValleyHi was located but there seems to be no visible trace of the drive in at that time.  I'm still looking for an earlier photo.

Pretty darn good reason why we couldn't find any rhyme or reason to the layout.  We were in the wrong place!  Thanks to Richard Tames and Kathleen Nesser, who notified us that we were off track, and sent us this satellite photo of the proper location down the street. We went to work and soon added this 2001 photo the the area.   As you can see from the photo, the outline of the field was still visible from the air.  The question was, could we find anything from the ground?  Richard and Kathleen had notified us of our mistake back on 13 Feb 2002 but events prevented us from visiting until 30 April.  Terry and I headed over to the location with his GPS receiver and my metal detector to see what we could find.  After driving around the property for a recon we decided to forge into the woods to see what we could find.  Terry wandered around and I searched the center grounds for almost a half hour with my metal detector and found nothing that would indicate a drive-in had once been there.   On the recon Terry had spotted what he thought to have bee a road coming in from the south side of the property.  I hadn't noticed anything in the aerial photos to indicate a road there but he trecked down that direction to satisfy his couriosity.  He wasn't gone long before he returned with reports or thick brush and briars, but no drive-in.  I suggested that we head north on the property and see what we could find.   Terry agreed that this was the best alternative until we got the creek.  It was about 3 foot across and I felt we could handle the jump but the bank was a bit steep on the other side.  I asked Terry if he thought he could make it across and he responded in a terse voice, "I could, but I won't."  We turned east and soon discovered that the creek had run dry proir to reaching a small pond.  So, the requirement for a daring high water crossing was thwarted.

It didn't take long after crossing the creek before I began to feel we had made the right move.  About 100 feet from the creek, the ground was heaped up in long rows about 1 foot high, 20 feet across and the rows curved around to each side of the property.  We headed south east (the direction the rows were facing) and were soon rewarded for our efforts.  Rising up from the leafy floor we found this. Looks like we struck pay dirt.  Terry says I looked like the hunter that had stalked his prey until he had mercilessly tracked it down. At first we were only able to locate 4 screen tower supports, but some careful inspection of the underbrush revealed this 5th support buried under years of growth and a fallen tree.   In all there were 5 supports located 10 feet apart.   Given that there are few screen towers with screens that end at the edge of the supports I feel we can safely predict that the screen was originally 60 feet long. These supports were very heavy and built to last. Each pad had a front and a rear support. I could speculate for years as to the original design of this screen, but I'd rather have someone that has seen supports like these tell me how it was built.  One thing I can say, this screen only came down because it was cut down with a torch.  GPS coordinates for each end of the tower are:  (To be added by Terry) About 20 feet to the west of the screen tower we found this foundation. It was 20 feet long and 8 feet wide with an angle iron edging and pipes on the corners.   The angle iron was cut off on the back side as though there had been a door there on the side pointing away from the screen.  From here I headed north and Terry headed north east.  Terry found a series of poles cut off just above the ground that we believe were once the fence post for the east side of the property.   As I headed North I found a large number of concrete pieces where the speaker poles had been pulled from the ground and the concrete broken off. Several hundred feet north I found the remains of the snackbar/projection booth.  The floor of the snackbar area (On the back side) had been originally covered with Terrazzo.   Terrazzo is a cement covering that has ground up colored stone in it.  Once it is poured and set, it is ground down to a smooth colored surface and coated.   I think that at one time somebody cared a lot about how this place looked.  There were provisions in the building for restrooms on each end.  I am assuming that the men's was on one end and women's on the other.  Out front of the building was a patio area that projected about 20 feet out from the building and ran almost the entire width of the building.   Hopefully we will get some more input for this site and some more clarification of the layout.

If you have any comments, corrections, or additions you can reach me Here.