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Harriet Baskas
Henrik von Lukowicz, left, and Sandra Buff pose with Bella's truck and a cutout of Edward in Forks, Wash.
With her daughter and two granddaughters in tow, JoAnne Clarke raced inside the visitor center in Forks, Wash., to grab a map for the town’s self-guided "Twilight" tour. Next came pictures taken with the cardboard cutouts of Edward, Bella and Jacob — characters made famous by the vampire-themed romance books written by Stephenie Meyer and the film adaptations.
"Nope, not interested," said Tom Clarke of Puyallup, Wash., arms crossed, refusing to go inside. "Just came along so I can spend time with my grandchildren."
"Typical 'Twilight' couple,” said Marcia Bingham, director of the Forks Chamber of Commerce, describing the Clarkes.
It's a scene that has played out countless times in this tiny community in western Washington state — ever since Meyer picked Forks and the rain-drenched forest of Olympic National Park as the setting for her books. Since 2006, Forks officials have counted more than 100,000 signatures in the register at the visitor center. "And that doesn't count all the fans who come to town but don't stop here for a map," said Mike Gurling, manager of the visitor information center.
Visitor statistics for 2011 are running a bit behind 2010, but Gurling said the town expects another "Twilight" uptick when the next movie in the series comes out, sometime in November.
Courtesy Mike Gurling
The Forks High School sign.
Neither the books nor the films feature actual places or people from the area. However, more than 73,000 fans visited in 2010 to have a look around. The former down-on-its-luck logging town has seen a surge in tourism-related jobs and motel and sales tax income due to the "Twilight" craze, so local residents and shop owners are happy to play along.
For example, a local pizza joint serves up "Bellalasagne," the pharmacy sells "Fang Floss" and there’s a parking spot at the Forks Community Hospital reserved for the fictional Dr. Cullen.
The "Twilight" tour map, handed out at the visitor center, leads fans to the Swan House, the Cullen House, Forks Outfitters, City Hall and the police station — all stand-ins for locations Meyer mentions or invented for the book.
(Forks' website features a page highlighting "Twilight" points of interest.)
Unfortunately for fans like Sandra Buff of Cologne, Germany, one popular stop on the tour, Forks High School, no longer exists. The 1925 building was knocked down in mid-June to make room for a new, more modern school, and efforts to raise funds to save the facade of the building failed. The school sign is still there, though, just north of the new school construction site.
"I wanted to see all the important places: the hospital, the houses and the school. But this won’t ruin my trip," said Buff, who did get her picture taken with the cardboard Edward outside the visitor center, right next to Bella's red truck.
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Three words: "REASONING WITH VAMPIRES." Best tumblr ever.
Also the link from the front page says that the town is "down on it's luck". Stop reading this poorly written piece of crap book and learn how apostrophes work, dammit.
The one example of an apostrophe "s" which does not work for possessive? Come on, there are seriously worse problems in the world.
Besides, that piece of crap book made a nice part of the Olympic Peninsula more pathetic... Wait, that's not a good thing. How about, that piece of crap book is the closest Mormons can come to pornography. In fact, here in Utah (where the author lives) we non-Mormons call it Mormon porn and laugh ourselves silly that people pay to read it.
Instead of wasting time learning how apostrophes work (you should have done this in junior high in any event) how about going up to Forks (they have a few nice motels and B&Bs (no apostrophe) and are very nicely located near the Hoh Rain Forest, Quinault Rain Forest and Quinalt Lake, among many other natural attractions. You can go around the peninsula to Port Townsend, Port Angeles, and on the east side hit the Hama Hama Oyster company for fresh or smoked oysters. Go to the San Jaun Islands and see Orcas from the beach that are often only feet away. Piebald Black Tail Deer on Orcas Island.
To go to the Olympic Peninsula and see the cardboard cutouts and handwritten signs luring in the vast uneducated and easily entertained masses coming to Forks for their Mormon porn fix was THE MOST PATHETIC part of my two trips to this area in the last year. I think I'll skip Forks for a while though, until this lame phase is over.
My aunt, Sandi, of Cutting Edge Vinyl Graphics made that replica license plate on the truck when they were unable to get the official personalized plate. She also made the sign down at the hospital that says "Reserved for Dr. Cullen". My best friend, Renee, and I painted that Spartans sign as President and Vice President of the Building and Grounds Committee quite a few years ago now.
My aunt Sandi was just diagnosed with liver cancer last week and is now in danger of losing her home to foreclosure...if you'd like to help her, go to this chip-in page I made for her:
I occasionally go hiking with my dog in the Olympic Peninsula. I didn't know about the Twilight connection until I arrived for my second visit at a dog-friendly Forks motel. The prices had gone up (a bit) and various businesses had signs touting connections with the books. (e.g., "Bella shops here!", "Twilight Themed Rooms.") Pretty funny, but I'm glad the town found a financial lifeline.
The funniest sign was found miles away, at the entrance to a coastal Indian reservation. I forget what the incoming side read, but on the way out there was a "vampires allowed" advisory.
I sent my "tweener" nieces a hand-cancelled postcard from the Forks post office. Still a prized possession after two years!
We went to Forks last year, when we were visiting family near Seattle and went out to Olympic National Park. If you've read the books, like our daughters had, Forks is a fun little sidetrip. But there's some equally awesome things to see nearby.....starfish and anemones in the tide pools at Rialto Beach north of La Push (where the werewolves from the books live), the huge trees washed up on the beaches in La Push, hiking up to fantastic snowcapped mountain views at Hurricane Hill in ONP!
Great for Forks - sad for the rest of us.
I grew up in Forks; went through grades 1-12, including the old high school which was recently demolished. I have family residing in Forks. They all think the 'Twilight' phenomenon is absurd, at times an intrusive nuisance, but a few who directly benefit from it are greatful, nonetheless. A reasonable person knows that the economic shot-in-the-arm this entertainment related phenom provides is destined to be less sustainable than the logging industry proved to be, and doomed to be relatively short-lived. Post-'Twilight' for Forks will be Forks Twilight, indeed...
My wife is a huge Twilight fan but she was really disappointed with Forks because nothing there was in the actual movie. For example, you mentioned the school in Forks was knocked down, but it wasn't in the movie anyway so who cares. The REAL Twilight scenes (the Diner, Charlie's house, Cullen house, Waterfall, the School, etc.) were filmed in and around Portland, Oregon. I know all this because I was the husband that got dragged along! :)
Google "real twilight filming locations" for good references (since I can't post links).