Film Locations – Visit Mt St Helens

Movie and Film in Cowlitz County

Our goals are to facilitate filming in Cowlitz County and Surrounding Areas for productions of all sizes, capture economic impact for our area, promote Cowlitz County as a film location, and support the industry’s success locally and internationally.

We act as a bridge between public and private entities

Permitting

We seek to foster an environment that allows Cowlitz County's film industry to prosper and offer new opportunities for our residents

Local Industry

We work to minimize local impact and preserve privacy of both the film industry and residents.

Neighborly

Movie Location for Twilight

With the book’s debut in 2005, the Twilight series became an instant bestseller and continues to steal young girls’ hearts and turn the fantasy world of vampires into a pop culture phenomenon.

In the books, the story is set in the town of Forks, Washington, near the Puget Sound peninsula. However, when it came time to film the first movie in the series, the producers headed to Southwest Washington and then Portland, Oregon, area to shoot most of the scenes.

An integral part of this high school drama was the high school itself. With its alluring mystery and old brick architecture, Kalama High School in Kalama, Washington, became the perfect setting. In 2008, the town was taken by storm by a fleet of semis and movie trailers carrying cast, crew and sets to Kalama High School for filming. Vampires, movie sets and screaming fans have become the norm for this small community of 1,700 residents.

Exit 30 on I-5 takes you into the heart of Kalama. Head up the hill at Elm Street, take a right on 4th Street and, if you’re a fan, you’ll recognize the parking lot. This small lot is usually home to the vehicles of Kalama High seniors. But in March 2008 it became the designated parking area for Edward, Alice and Rosalie and the set of one of the most memorable scenes in Twilight when the handsome Edward rushes across the parking lot and halts an out-of-control van seconds before it pins Bella between it and her truck. This scene is a turning point in the movie and certainly the most popular site for tourists and fans to pose for pictures.

Located at the parking lot is a box containing maps of the school campus; the map includes numbers correlating with scenes from the movie and directions on how to get to them. Some of the additional scenes shot at Kalama High include the hill Bella and Edward walk up as they go into the woods, where she says for the first time that she thinks he’s a vampire and the PE class scene where Bella hits a classmate with a basketball.

If you’re a Twilight fan, be sure to stop by Kalama High School and have your picture in the parking lot where Edward and Bella once stood!

Twilight merchandise is available for purchase upon request at the campus office, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the Kalama Student Body Association to fund student activities. If you are visiting while school is in session, please remember to stop by the Kalama High School office to pick up a visitor’s pass. Office hours are 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Call 360.673.5212 for information.

Interesting Facts

The movie’s hospital scenes were actually shot in the Kalama High School wrestling room. During filming, the crew needed a large open space to construct a hospital set. Since March is off-season for wrestling, the room was the perfect place for the scene to be shot.

Although the Pacific Northwest is known for its rainy season, the pavement in the parking lot wasn’t wet enough on the day the crash scene was filmed. To fix this problem, a large water truck was brought in to spray the area.

Movie Location for Men of Honor

This film starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Robert De Niro was set at an East Coast diving school, though it was filmed almost entirely in Washington and Oregon.

The U.S. Navy Diving School was built by the film crew across from Longview, WA on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. The land is just west of the Lewis & Clark Bridge off of Dike Road. This area is known as "Dibblee Point." Longview's industrial area was the major backdrop for scenes filmed at Dibblee Point.

Bar scenes were filmed at the River Rat Tap at 90 Broadway in Cathlamet. The above shot looks north on Broadway toward Main Street (thanks to Pride).

Interesting Facts

The film features the classic US Navy Mark V diving equipment used by the Navy from 1915 until 1985. It is rare to see this equipment used in motion pictures. The equipment was custom made by DESCO, who manufactured the gear for the Navy along with three other makers. The helmets used were actually commercial helmets (which have larger glass windows or "lights") on Navy breast plates, allowing greater visibility of the actors. The divers wore equipment weighing about 200 pounds (91 kg.