William Thomas Carter, "Flint" to his friends, is an artist and author born in 1947 in Danville, Illinois. After attending Danville High School, he served in Panama during the Vietnam conflict at the Latin American Headquarters Post. He received the National Defense and Good Conduct medals. Returning home, Flint attended Danville Junior College and later Southern Illinois University. Special interest in the design department, headed by Buckminster Fuller, inspired the building of Arizona's first solar heated and cooled museum.

While in Arizona, Ted DeGrazia, whose work is well known in the commercial art world, was a mentor and friend. He was the inspiration for the outdoor theater "The Stage in the Sun," named in honor of DeGrazia's Gallery In The Sun. In 1988, "The Oracale Historian" published "The Story of Gold," a short story, followed by "The Legend," a brochure produced by SaddleBrooke Development Corp.

At present, an accredited archeological discovery of a lost city involved in the Iron Door Mine legend is being documented for film and literary purposes. In 1995, a special collection of minerals, prehistoric and historic artifacts, art, jewelry and related memorabilia from Arizona's Canyon of Gold, Canada del Oro, was shown at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show at the TCC. The collection has premiered in the lobby entranceway of the Tucson Convention Center.

This collection was shown for five years. Environmental accomplishments include a solar stucco design and a multi-million dollar industrial toxic site clean up. The Dixie Auto Parts Clean Up in Danville, spearheaded by Carter set a precedence which lead to the dredging of the Hudson River to remove PCBs- a dredging operation costing $50,000,000 - larger than the entire gold rush of 1849.

Also, having secured placement for various historical pieces in museums nationwide, William Thomas Carter was instrumental in returning the war bonnet of Tasin, son of Cochise, to the Apaches at Fort Still, Oklahoma.

Contact Flint Carter at 520-289-4566.

The story of the Iron Door Mine. Attempting to do for Westerns what his Guns of Navarone had done for World War II action epics, director J. Lee Thompson crafted Mackenna's Gold as a lavish, absurdly ambitious variation on Erich Von Stroheim's Greed, resulting in a last-gasp Western so eager to encompass the genre's traditions that it turns into a big, silly, wildly entertaining mess. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com.

DVD edition of MacKenna's Gold. Studio: Sony Pictures. DVD format. Release Date: July 11, 2000. Run Time: 128 minutes.