What if a story about your little hometown became extremely popular and brought visitors from all over the world seeking a piece of it? When a book or movie puts a quiet little town on the map, you have to expect people will want to come and see it. Whether that’s a benefit or curse may depend on the movie.
Forks, Washington
Some towns revel in the notoriety that comes with a movie. Thousands of fans make their way to Forks, Washington (population 3,221) every month to enjoy the atmosphere of the setting for the Twilight books and movies. Local businesses have erected signs referring to the movies. The principal of Forks High School says the school has designated lockers for the characters Edward and Bella -for the benefit of the tourists. Sales of Twilight merchandise and tourist services have energized the small town that once depended on logging for its economy. Even those residents who don’t like the books welcome the money the tourists bring in.
The Forks Chamber of Commerce website has an entire section on Twilight, including a map of “points of interest”, and (of course), an online store where you can buy a “New Moon Over Forks” sweatshirt for only $40. Last summer, Forks hosted an event called Summer School in Forks: A “Twilight” Symposium at Forks High School. The ultimate event of the symposium was a prom featuring Twilight cast member look-alikes. Twilight has been good for business since the first book was published.
Burkittsville, Maryland
The residents of Burkettsville, Maryland (population 171) have mixed feelings about the movie that put them on the map. The Blair Witch Project was released in 1999 and promoted as a documentary, although it was a work of fiction. The city website urges visitors to:
Please understand, while the town of Burkittsville is real, the movie is just that, a movie. The legend is a fake. True, there is a dark, dense woods to the west of town, but most people are convinced there is no Stick Manchild-stealing witch inhabiting those woods.. Burkittsville is a small, sleepy, historic village nestled between two Civil War battlefields in central Maryland. Yet Burkittsville is visited annually by thousands of movie and witchcraft fans — just wanting to “see” for themselves. It is a pretty town (pictures), it is an historic town, but it is not haunted town. Hmmmmm…what about all of those spirits from the nearby battlefields?
The success of the movie brought sudden and unexpected notoriety to Bukittsville. The town signs were stolen over and over again, and the cemetery was vandalized. Even now, tourists are warned that the locals might not be welcoming. However, money talks. Even as it steers you away from believing what is depicted in the movie, Burkittsville invites you to shop there for Halloween costumes and explore the local businesses that cater to witch-hunting tourists.
Amityville, New York
Amityville, New York is famous twice for horrifying stories. In 1974, Ronald DeFeo, Jr. killed six members of his family in the house at 112 Ocean Avenue. The same house later became the subject of the 1979 movie The Amityville Horror. The movie was not about the murders, but about the ghosts that remained behind in the home to haunt the new owners, George and Kathleen Lutz. The movie and the 1977 book it was based on, The Amityville Horror – A True Story, were promoted as a real-life account of paranormal phenomenon. Eight other movies followed. The publicity surrounding the book and movie brought tons of tourists into Amityville, much more so than the DeFeo murders. People pulled shingles off the roof of the house and destroyed the yard as they marched through uninvited, upsetting Barbara Crowmarty, the next homeowner. She estimated 5,000 people came to her home in one month. Her neighbors were also upset. Souvenir-seekers grabbed parts of their homes as well!
Much of the anger of the Amityville residents came from the Lutz’s claim that the haunting was a true story. As years passed, those claims fell apart. A friend of George Lutz who was also Ronald DeFeo Jr’s lawyer admitted he helped concoct the story. None of the subsequent owners of the home experienced any unusual or paranormal events. Several times the idea of turning the house into a bed and breakfast was turned down by the village council. In the years since The Amityville Horror, the house address has been changed, and the home was remodeled to make it less recognizable as the haunted house in the movie. And that’s the way Amityville residents want it.
What causes such a difference in the way small towns react to the notoriety a film brings? The three towns here are much too small of a sample to draw any conclusions. It could be the suddenness of the onslaught, or the behavior of tourists, or the need for the economic boost tourism brings. It very well could be the amount of controversy that surrounds the film. Amityville had to deal with thousands of people who believed the house was truly haunted, on top of the tragedy of the earlier murders of a local family. In the case of Burkittsville, a large part of the audience was skeptical of The Blair Witch Project‘s documentary marketing stunt, which the film makers didn’t bother to defend. After all, the students who disappeared during the movie later gave interviews about it. Forks, Washington has no need to correct tourists’ perceptions, as there are no claims that vampires actually go to high school there. If the locals can have some fun with their notoriety and make a profit, it’s all good -as long as the tourists behave themselves.
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I lived in North Bend, Washington for a number of years and the town was known well after Twin Peaks stopped filming, as one of the spots from the show. It was fun, and I have to admit the cherry pie was very good. Only nuisance were occasional large buses of Japanese tourists. Seems the show kept on in Japan a lot longer. At least it brought some money to town.
posted by FlowerPower on 10-29-2009 at 10:53 am
this happens alot in my town….miami
posted by Dre on 10-29-2009 at 11:16 am
Don’t forget about Roswell NM; a town that has grasped its notoriety with open tentacles – er, arms.
posted by Jim K on 10-29-2009 at 11:52 am
And don’t forget the fine folks of Grover’s Mill, New Jersey where the Martian Invaders from Orson Wells’ War of the Worlds radio broadcast were supposed to have landed.
I was wondering if the fabulous fine Farkle Family could be from Fork, Washington.
Speaking of tentacles, the Farkles had them I do believe….
posted by RobertH W on 10-29-2009 at 12:07 pm
Mayberry Days in Mount Airy, NC Tourism is now one of the towns biggest income producers.
posted by PJMoore on 10-29-2009 at 12:20 pm
Similar to the North Bend story, just across the Cascade Mountains to the East is the sleepy town of Roslyn, WA. This town was the setting for Cicely, AK in Northern Exposure and the town still benefits to this day from that “exposure”.
posted by James on 10-29-2009 at 12:29 pm
While not exactly a small town, Savannah, GA definitely benefited from the book and film versions of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
posted by Anthony on 10-29-2009 at 12:37 pm
I can’t imagine destorying a house/cemetery b/c of a movie or a book – that just seems so over the top to me. I mean, take a picture and leave it be – what if everybody chipped a bit of stone from the Lincoln Memorial or a bit of Graceland’s gates?
I’m glad to see the people of Forks are so welcoming, though — I honestly thought it’d be the opposite reaction, bunch of vamp-hungry teens (and adults) decending on this small town. Hm.
posted by OkieMelissa on 10-29-2009 at 12:40 pm
Two things that the “Blair Witch is True” people can’t get through their heads:
1. Burkittsville was never know as Blair Township.
2. There has never been any “township” in the State of Maryland.
It was fiction people Fik-Shun
But then some people have gone to Minnesota looking for the hidden money after watching “Fargo”
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 10-29-2009 at 1:01 pm
Hardy a small town, but I’ve lived in or close to Dallas for…a long time. You wouldn’t believe how many people have asked if I know JR.
posted by Amber on 10-29-2009 at 1:34 pm
For some reason, not many people visited my home town of Clayton, GA after the movie debuted. Who would have thought Deliverance would be bad for tourism… wait, did I just hear banjos playing?
posted by DawgFan on 10-29-2009 at 1:45 pm
I live in Scotland, just one village away from Roslin, the town that is home to Rosslyn Chapel. I saw the chapel before they made the movie of The DaVinci Code, and it was a beautiful little chapel with a little bit of Templar crap in the gift shop (for the people who had read the book). Now it is a huge tourist eyesore that barely resembles the operating church it is supposed to be. Every pub in town is called The Davinci Pub or The Holy Grail. It’s a bit sad.
posted by Alana on 10-29-2009 at 4:00 pm
No mention of Astoria Oregon? I drive by the Goonies house every day on the way to work and people everywhere mention that movie as soon as i say where im from. which is so weird because it doesnt seem any more special than any other town that they filmed a beloved movie in. Like who knows what town Sandlot or Stand By Me was filmed in?!!
posted by Randy on 10-29-2009 at 4:01 pm
Sandlot was filmed in various towns in Utah. Stand By Me in Oregon and California.
posted by Nykkya on 10-29-2009 at 8:22 pm
I work in Purdy, MO notorious for the Footloose story. People there never talk about it; but last year Purdy finally allowed dancing at the school.
posted by Roxanne on 10-29-2009 at 9:05 pm
Randy – when I think of Astoria, OR, I think of the home of cable TV–as well as the movie “Kindergarten Cop.” I guess that is because I have been there but never saw “The Goonies.”
The town I live in was the fictional home of Wayne’s World (Aurora, IL), but I have not seen anything to commemorate that.
posted by Tim on 10-29-2009 at 9:08 pm
It would have never occurred to me in a million years that Footloose was a true story.
posted by Miss Cellania on 10-29-2009 at 9:15 pm
Of course, this rule does not always hold true. The above comment referring to Grover’s Mill, NJ is terribly mistaken. I grew up just a few miles from the supposed “landing site” and spent most of my life in that general area. There are no tourists or martian hunters of any kind. Ever. There is a small park a few blocks from the field where the “invasion” began, and said park hosts a large plaque with an engraved image of the martian invaders. For the record, the locals hate the plaque and have petitioned for it to be removed on a number of occassions.
posted by Nick on 10-29-2009 at 9:36 pm
Livingston, Montana and the areas around are where “A River Runs Through It” was filmed. thankfully it never brought too much attention to the area.
posted by lsmith on 10-30-2009 at 1:46 am
I’ve been to forks and for the most part its wonderful, there were some rude people though. I absolutely loved La Push beach it was beautiful.
posted by Anne on 10-30-2009 at 1:59 am
Iowa still sees movie fans coming to Winterset (location of the famed “Bridges of Madison County”) and Dyersville (home of the “Field of Dreams”).
-”BB”-
posted by Bicycle Bill on 10-30-2009 at 2:07 am
A friend of mine is originally from Mount Pleasant, West Virginia – home of the Mothman legend. Shortly after the movie Mothman Prophesies was in theaters she and her husband visited her relatives there. Her husband was curious about the town and the mothman story so he did a little investigating. Some people liked how the movie promoted and added to the notoriety of the Mothman legacy. They directed him to the points of interest AND the gift shops. Other people didn’t like it. One guy yelled at my friend about how the Mothman doesn’t exist, it’s B.S. and it makes the towns-people look like idiots and rubes.
posted by Tdave on 10-31-2009 at 8:37 am
correction: The name of the town is Point Pleasant, not Mount Pleasant.
posted by Tdave on 11-1-2009 at 8:04 am
I lived in one of the small towns in Ohio where The Shawshank Redemption was filmed (even though it’s supposed to take place in Maine…) and I was amazed when so many people came to the town after the movie came out. The courthouse in the film is where I went when I got my first speeding ticket, even. Now, it’s calmed down quite a bit, but the town will never be quite the same. My father is a commissioner for the county and there was recently a celebration for the 15th anniversary of the film.
There, there’s nothing but good things to be said. The movie staff treated the hometown folks well, the tourism following was minimal but appreciated, and they allowed locals to be extras and do their tasks. (For example, some of the people in the workshop scenes were actually employees of the lumber yard.)
posted by Amauriel on 11-1-2009 at 12:49 pm
I grew up in the town where the surfing scene from Apocalypse Now was filmed in Baler Aurora, Philippines; tourism there didn’t really increase because of the film. I think it’s because it was pretty hard to get to and you would have to be crazy to travel there by land through the jungle.
posted by irv on 11-19-2009 at 3:32 am
I feel so bad for what these tourist put the Crowmarty family through in the town of Amityville.It just goes to show you how rude and Obnoxious Movie fans can be.They wouldnt have liked it one bit if the tables were turned on them.People need to get a life and stop believing everything they hear and read from Books about Ghost and Demon possesed houses.Nothing but pure Bologna
posted by Darla suttles on 12-9-2009 at 6:45 am