[justrealist]

> Had somebody been able to foresee the popularity and success of ‘Star Wars,’ it would have been crazy not to save the grove where Endor was made and use it as a tourist venue,”

This was the third movie. Star Wars was already extremely popular by the time this as filmed.

[basil-rash]

The author overestimates the public’s willingness to go to humboldt. It’s a far-too-long drive from absolutely everywhere.

[smcin]

Hey that's nasty, it's nice road-trip material, redwoods, coast, historical towns; Mendocino to the south, and Oregon to the north. Some people live there by choice.

You know you've been in SV too long when your first association for 'sequoia' is 'VC' or 'portfolio' not 'tree' or 'forest'.

[dieselgate]

For sure. That drive (or bike) on 101 is priceless. Good attractions, that I remember, are the glass beach and Samoa cookhouse. Met someone a few weeks ago and found out today he went to Humboldt for college - came up while exchanging phone numbers and I have a 707

Edit: way better driving north from the Bay Area on hwy 101 than south towards SoCal on 5

[basil-rash]

Certainly nobody chooses to live there for the tourists!

And it’s a fine place; I’ve just driven Seattle-LA on every path imaginable more times than I can count. It happens to be right around the point where you’re really far from absolutely everything, and it all looks the same.

[UncleEntity]

It's, what, a 5 hour drive from San Francisco to Eureka?

Takes longer to fly to Las Vegas if you count all the Security Theater and whatnot.

[basil-rash]

No, it doesn’t. Flying to Vegas is 3 hours all said and done, and $20. For a party of 2 any car under 35mpg would be more expensive, and that’s not counting depreciation. And assuming you even have a car. And you even get unlimited food and drinks at the lounges, if that’s your bag.

Also when you fly to Vegas you end up in Vegas, with about a million things to do. When you drive to Humboldt you end up at a forest, after spending the past 5 hours driving through… forests.

[yareal]

Wait, what? People travel to see things all the time. The original Star Wars sets in Tunisia, hobbiton in New Zealand, the evil dead house in Tennessee, or even Petra because of Indiana Jones. I guarantee you it would be a tourist attraction today if it still existed.

Also, Humboldt is not really that far from anywhere and is a lovely journey through some incredible forests.

[dataviz1000]

Argentinians travel to see East High School in Salt Lake City where High School Musical was filmed.

[jacobolus]

French tourists are always asking about the "blue house" in San Francisco, to the bemusement of the locals. Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxime_Le_Forestier

[aunty_helen]

Can confirm, distance is no barrier for the LOTR franchise. There’s still plenty of tourism in nz because of those movies.

[thatfrenchguy]

Extremely beautiful and underrated though, as is everything between the north bay and Oregon on 1/101 frankly.

[basil-rash]

Much better past the Oregon border.

[smcin]

But they only had two films to base it on; they would have had to make that decision a few months after the RotJ scene filming ended but before it released. And presumably since the forest was privately-owned, somebody would have had to pay $$$ to acquire it then make it a park (and that somebody would have to be the state of CA, not Del Norte + Humboldt Counties).

In those counties the state already had RNSP (Redwood National and State Parks), a complex of one national park and three California state parks (139,000 acres; 560 km2). [0]

This makes me curious about the economics of when are the rare occasions it makes economic sense to use public money to buy and preserve popular movie locations on private property/land (as opposed to paying a premium for sentimental or tourist value). For example the famous 'Friends' apartment exterior in NYC is still private property. 'Shawshank Redemption' on its initial release bombed at the box office. Scranton, PA has a self-guided tourist trail [1] for the US version of 'The Office'. Only rare places like Punxsutawney, PA [2][3] (the town 'Groundhog Day' is set in, although the film was entirely shot in Woodstock IL [4]) make $. For the hardcore tourists there's Tataouine, Tunisia.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redwood_National_and_State_Par...

[1]: https://www.visitnepa.org/things-to-do/self-guided-tours/the...

[2]: "Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney’s Million Dollar Holiday" https://nation.time.com/2014/02/01/groundhog-day-punxsutawne...

[3]: Punxsutawney Phil’s town misses Groundhog Day boost (2021) https://apnews.com/general-news-d4a183fdd599322fb9b23a5cb214...

[4]: "Groundhog Days in Woodstock, IL" https://woodstockgroundhog.org/

[bbarn]

The article even mentions them having to use code names for the film while securing the place to film.

[kristjansson]

I mean if these were centuries-old trees, their film-historical value was really secondary...