Given the region’s nickname as the “Hollywood of the North,” this museum is a fitting site celebrating the area’s contributions to film making.
The Oregon Film Museum in Astoria documents more than 100 years of film making in this northwestern state, many miles from Hollywood’s glitz and glamor. Learn why the region is so versatile for simulating settings in many different environments. View posters, props, script pages and quotes from some of the movies that have been filmed in the state, starting with The Fisherman’s Bride in 1908.
The museum is in the former Clatsop County Jail, where an action scene from The Goonies was filmed in 1985. Before entering, notice the movie’s Jeep riddled with bullet holes. Learn a few lines of script and create your own film in one of the gallery sets at the museum. Then send the video to yourself to keep.
Oregon’s geography includes mountains, ocean, rivers, waterfalls and even desert lands, meaning that the area can serve as a backdrop for a variety of stories. Read the list of Oregon-made films. Outdoor spots in Baker City, Oregon, simulated a California Gold Rush setting in the 1969 film Paint Your Wagon, while the 1940 Abe Lincoln in Illinois was actually filmed in Eugene, not the Midwest. Free Willy, whose famous orca rescue nominally takes place in the ocean near Seattle, was filmed in Astoria, as was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Kindergarten Cop.
Note that Mount Hood in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains was used as a stand-in for the Rocky Mountains in The Shining. Vampires of the Twilight series visited Oregon’s forests, mountains and coastline, which the movie claimed to be Washington. The wild college scenes from Animal House took place at the University of Oregon in Eugene.
Find the Oregon Film Museum in downtown Astoria. The museum is open daily except a few major holidays. There is an admission fee, with discounts for kids. Visit the gift shop to browse film memorabilia, especially from The Goonies. Purchase Baby Ruth candy bars, which were integral to the film’s plot.
After your tour, walk across the street to see the Flavel House Museum, a mansion built during the 1880s in Queen Anne style. It also made a very brief appearance in The Goonies.
