Location, location, location

Get front row seats on the Oregon Film Trail

By Gretchen Ammerman

Oregon Coast TODAY

Thirty-five years ago, “The Goonies” literally put Astoria on the map, if the map you are talking about is the Oregon Film Trail, a statewide guide to iconic filming locations across Oregon.

Since the early 1900s, more than 450 movies have been filmed here, and TV shows like “Portlandia,” and “Grimm” highlight some of the quirkier aspects of our great state.

The Oregon Film Office developed the initial concept of the Oregon Film Trail with many partners; currently there are 21 signs, two points of interest and a 160-foot mural and film poster exhibit at Portland International Airport. The trail is still growing, with many more stops planned in communities across Oregon.

Along the Central Coast, the sites that have been granted signs primarily reflect the work of Oregon author Ken Kesey, whose two more successful novels were made into films, allowing Kesey to show off some of his favorite parts of the state.

‘Sometimes a Great Notion’

The first sign on the film trail was installed in September 2018 at the Gleneden Beach State Recreational Area to commemorate when, in 1970, stars like Paul Newman and Henry Fonda descended on Lincoln County for months of filming Ken Kesey’s tale about the trials and tribulations of a coastal logging family.

A few miles northeast, you can still see a critical part of the film set, the “Stamper House” which was almost a character in its own right, even appearing in many of the posters promoting the film.

Built on the south bank of the Siletz River in Kernville, just a few miles from the coast on Highway. 229, the house originally had no interior walls, electricity or even a full roof. But it was constructed back when things were built to last. So, instead of being razed as planned after the movie wrapped, it was sold to a local man who finished the construction. It has gone through a few renovations and owners but the basic design of both the exterior and interior of the house remain as seen in the film.

The house as described in the book:

“The family house itself manifests the physical stubbornness of the Stamper family; as the nearby river widens slowly and causes erosion, all the other houses on the river have either been consumed or wrecked by the waters or moved away from the current, except the Stamper house, which stands on a precarious peninsula struggling to maintain every inch of land with the help of an arsenal of boards, sand bags, cables, and other miscellaneous items brandished by Henry Stamper in his fight against the encroaching river.”

Though it operated as a vacation rental for a time, the house is now a private home. You can, however, enter a few other sites that the stars and crew frequented, filmed or slept in. Not surprisingly, some are bars.

By all accounts, the cast and crew consumed a not-insignificant amount of alcohol during the shoot, some of it on the premises of the Bay Haven Inn, which has operated on the Newport bayfront since 1908 and appears in the movie as “The Snag.”

Head to Toledo for another of the official trail sites, including the Timbers Restaurant and Lounge, where other scenes were filmed. While on a self-guided film site tour a few years ago, I went into the Timbers and met a gentleman who was an extra during the movie’s Gleneden Beach scenes and still remembers fondly how the crew let the underage extras have a little bit of beer.

Though the lodgings that appeared in the film are mostly long gone, places where most of the actors and crew stayed still stand, including Salishan Lodge and the Dorchester House.

‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’

Kesey’s other novel immortalized on celluloid, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” also has filming locations on the Central Coast, most notably in Depoe Bay.

Head down to the “World’s smallest harbor,” to see a film trail sign installed in 2019, commemorating the site of one of the few joyful moments in an otherwise dark movie — when Jack Nicolson’s Murphy and cronies take a boat out to sea, passing under the iconic Depoe Bay Bridge.

The sign includes an addendum about “The Burning Plain,” starring Charlize Theron, Jennifer Lawrence and Kim Basinger, filmed for a week in 2008 in Depoe Bay, primarily at the Tidal Raves restaurant. Many locals were used as extras, and probably got a good laugh when the notoriously wet area served up a week of blue skies, causing the film crew to have to create fake rain.

The likelihood is high that cast and crew spent some time across the street at Gracie’s Sea Hag, but there are definitely stories of the cast and crew from “Sometimes a Great Notion,” spending time there. Founder Gracie Strom, who passed away in 2015, reportedly played music on liquor bottles for Paul Newman, a tradition her daughter continues to this day.

If you really want to get into the Kesey mood, visit the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport, where most rooms are designed to honor an author, including a Ken Kesey room.

Finally, if you have any anecdotes, pictures or stories of filmed projects that have shot in your area, the organizers of the film trail would love to hear from you. Email them at makeit@oregonmade.org.