Frank Stanley Nugent, who would become the screenwriter for "The Searchers," first worked with Ford when Ford asked him if he would write the screenplay for Ford's film "Fort Apache." Nugent agreed and Ford gave him various books to read about the West, then told him to go to the area where the Apache had lived so he could understand it better. Nugent, enthusiastic about the project, got an anthropology student from the University of Arizona to give him an informed tour. When he got back, Nugent told Ford he thought he'd learned enough. "Good," Ford said. "Now, just forget everything you've read and we'll start writing a movie."
