The Columbia Diggins is a recreation of the mining camp as it appeared in 1852. For a few days around Memorial Day weekend dozens of docents dress in period costume and show how life really was during the Gold Rush. … Continue reading
Classic Tuolumne Film: Blooper in Back to the Future III
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I recently came across a website called Movie Mistakes where film nerds have compiled a lot of bloopers from the Classic Tuolumne Film™ Back to the Future III. A lot of them are pretty ticky-tack, but I spotted one they didn’t. See if you can spot the mistake in this frame:
Did you spot the mistake? Let me know in the comments. You can find a list of BTTF III errors at Movie Mistakes.
Spotlight on Railtown, a Very Special Event June 9th
Tuolumne County’s Rotary clubs will host a “Spotlight on Railtown” fundraiser on Saturday evening, June 9, at Railtown 1897 State Historic Park (SHP) in Jamestown, CA. This special fundraising event is one of several that local Rotary clubs are holding in an effort to keep Railtown 1897 SHP open and in continued operation. Tickets are $50 per person and all proceeds will directly benefit the Park and its continued operation.
The festivities will begin at 6 p.m., with local wines and delicious appetizers served in and around the Park’s signature facility, the Historic Jamestown Roundhouse and Shops. As guests tour the facility, they will enjoy live music; turntable demonstrations; historic railcar rides; and “Movie Star” locomotive Sierra No. 3 in operation. Next will be a silent auction, followed by dramatizations and short speeches in the historic Depot. Then, for a relaxing grand finale to the evening, guests will enjoy a ride aboard Railtown 1897’s excursion train, with silent auction results announced as the train arrives back at the Depot.
Rail enthusiasts and the community at large are encouraged to play a supporting role in Railtown 1897’s future. Tickets for “Spotlight on Railtown” are available from local Rotary club members, at the Park itself during regular hours, or online .
“Spotlight on Railtown” is presented by the Sonora Rotary Club, Sunrise Rotary Club, ‘49er Rotary Club, Twain Harte Rotary Club, and Groveland Rotary Club, and sponsored by the Black Oak Casino, California State Parks, and the California State Railroad Museum Foundation. Featured wines will include Gianelli Vineyards of Jamestown, Indigeny Reserve Hard Cider and La Bella Rosa Vineyards both of Sonora, and Zucca Mountain Vineyards of Murphys.
Find Your Inner Spielberg This Summer at California Film Workshops
Find your inner Spielberg this summer at California Film Workshops in Modesto. In just five weeks you’ll get hands-on training with professional motion picture equipment, learn the complete production process from concept to distribution, and be ready to start making your own films. More information at California Film Workshops.
Tuolumne Film: Day of the Animals (1977)
We won’t call it a classic, but we’re happy to add Day of the Animals to the Tuolumne County filmography. Starring Leslie Nielsen and the husband-wife team of Christopher and Lynda Day George, this low-budget horror film was shot all over the high country of Tuolumne County.
Here’s a plot synopsis from Wikipedia: “A battle for survival begins as a group of mountain hikers in Northern California encounter a chemically imbalanced forest. The recent depletion of the Earth’s ozone layer causes the sun to shine powerful ultraviolet light carrying solar radiation that causes a Rabies like-disease to all animals above the altitude of 5,000 feet to run amok and kill, which is very unfortunate for a group of hikers who get dropped off up there by helicopter just before a quarantine is announced for all the surrounding towns. This has a dramatic effect on the rest of the nation, turning common household pets and pests into vicious attackers.”
I think my favorite scene in the movie is when Leslie Nielsen wrestles a bear. Or rather a guy in a bear suit. In fact, it’s all pretty hard to bear. This trailer gives you a good idea:
A Brief History of Film in Tuolumne County
Tuolumne County’s film history began in 1914, when director J.P. McGowan first discovered Tuolumne County for a serial called The Hazards of Helen. Film legends Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith soon followed.
The 1920s brought dozens more feature films, nearly all featuring the steam engines of the Sierra Railroad and Tuolumne County’s wide variety of terrain – from plains, to rolling hills, to oak savannah, to the desert-like badlands we call the Red Hills, and finally up into the pines—all within 49 miles of track.
This winning combination led to one of the first “talkies”. Eighteen months after The Jazz Singer, acclaimed director Victor Fleming and rising star Gary Cooper came to Tuolumne County to make The Virginian. We like to think the first sound many people heard from a motion picture was the whistle of our very own Sierra #3.
Fleming would return to Tuolumne County in 1935 to direct Henry Fonda’s movie debut in Farmer Takes A Wife. Cooper returned for several films including Fighting Caravans, For Whom The Bell Tolls, and the Western classic High Noon. The latter film included the Gold Rush town of Columbia, first used in the thirties for Hopalong Cassidy films and others featuring Tom Mix, Errol Flynn, and Joel McCrea.
The people of Tuolumne County knew they had a good thing going and did their level best to keep Hollywood coming. In 1937 – many years before the first ‘film commission’ was established – the Sonora Motion Picture Association was doing the very thing good commissions do today: visiting studios and hosting tours of the county. This partnership led to literally hundreds of feature films, and later hundreds of television episodes and other film productions – an industry that has meant millions of dollars to our community over their fifty years in operation.
The Tuolumne County Film Commission has followed in the footsteps of this groundbreaking group, starting in the early 1990s. We market to the industry and then assist productions once they arrive, with the goal of making the process as smooth as possible.
Here are just some of the films and television series filmed in Tuolumne County:
- 1910s: Scarlet Days, The Half Breed, The Red Glove
- 1920s: The Traveling Salesman, Covered Wagon, The Virginian
- 1930s: Charge of the Light Brigade, Dodge City, Go West, Wells Fargo
- 1940s: For Whom The Bell Tolls, My Little Chickadee, Return of Frank James
- 1950s: High Noon, Rage at Dawn, The Big Country
- 1960s: “Petticoat Junction”, The Great Race,“Bonanza”
- 1970s: “Little House on the Prairie”, Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, Bound For Glory
- 1980s: Back to the Future III, Pale Rider, Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom
- 1990s: Radio Flyer, Unforgiven, Bad Girls
- 2000s: “Three Wishes”, Hidalgo, “Monster Garage”
See them all on our filmography page.