MovieChat Forums > Paint Your Wagon (1969) Discussion > Eagle Complex Fire

Eagle Complex Fire

posted 9 years ago by TRImmoos
3 replies | jump to latest

Currently there is a wildfire burning in eastern Oregon that is threatening the filming location(s) of Paint Your Wagon.

http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4481/

It's called the Eagle Complex, has burned over 12,000 acres and is 25% contained. The latest perimeter map shows that it has entered the watershed on the west side of East Eagle Creek where PYW was filmed and has burned all the way down to the creek near the bridge featured in the movie but has yet to cross the creek.

I made it to the location 2 years ago having not been there since the mid '70s. I took a few photos but nothing too special as I was there right in the middle of the day and I was a little pressed for time but it was cool to be there again.

Let's all hope the fire doesn't take everything out, it's such a beautiful place.

Tony

[–] grambax 8 years ago

Any update on this?

I know its wrong to be concerned about a natural disaster's effect on a film location, but I care!

Envy you. I've always dreamed of visiting that place. Doubt I ever can, but it would be nice to know that it still remains.

[–] TRImmoos 8 years ago

The latest map I was able to see showed the fire burning down to East Eagle Creek and the road but not crossing over. Click the following link and look for the photo location arrow in one of the lower images, it came real close. One of the dashed lined squares is one square mile.... Big fire!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/trimmoos/26389301252/

I would imagine the west slopes of the canyon may be burned out but the east side, where most of the films visuals are, will be fine.

I did learn since my visit, that there were two main filming locations, the first was the tent city area which was filmed at and around the bridge that crosses the creek and where my photo was taken in the above link, and the No-Name City area which was filmed about 1/2 mile south in the meadow area which is where there is signage today that mentions it as a filming location of PYW.

If your interested, here are gps coordinates of locations, copy and paste them into google earth to get a look at the areas.

Photo location with tent city
45.03609 N 117.33259 W

No-name City location
45.02454 N 117.33392 W

Starbottle Pass location
(Anthony Lakes)
44.95540 N 118.24329 W

Opening and closing wagon train scenes
(Holcomb Valley - Big Bear Lake)
34.30543 N 116.91951 W

[–] grambax 8 years ago

Hey, Thank You Very Much for all that info!