Been there...Vernonia,Oregon, Wynoochee River, WA.Simpson Timber Companys Camp Grisdale 1961, a movie called “The Ring of Fire” was set in Washington State, but was being filmed in Vernonia Oregon. Starring David Janssen (The Fugitive TV show) and Frank Gorshin (who played the Riddler in the original Batman), the plot of the movie was silly, centering on a police chase from Tacoma to Shelton and then through the woods of the Pacific Northwest during a wildfire. This disaster film ends with the couple fleeing the city on a train, only to have their train get stuck on a wooden bridge over a deep gorge. Instead of using cheesy special effects, the producers of the film wanted it to look at real as possible. In an earlier scene in the movie, they burned an actual mill in Vernonia, Oregon, so size and scale was where their focus was at. Not able to locate a suitable place in Oregon, the studio discovered an old section of rail over the Wynoochee River, abandoned for the better part of a decade. Built in 1939 by the Simpson Timber Company, an old two-tier high wooden railway trestle was purchased for the movie and then promptly destroyed. The bridge needed rails added but within a few days, it was ready for movie magic. They placed a train on the bridge and started rolling. In the climatic final scene of the movie, the train and bridge are burnt from the impending destructive forest fire. As the bridge collapses, explosives were detonated, causing a gigantic fireball as the train tumbles down into the deep gorge below. After the filming had been completed, it was discovered that the gorge was too deep to take the train cars out of the river. The passenger cars were cut in half and left sitting on the banks of the river. The engine landed directly in the water, where it was left to sit and rust with the rest of the wreckage. The movie was largely forgotten about, never amounting to any real profit or popularity, despite its real destruction of areas for effect. https://youtube/watch?v=QBwYe9C4Abo
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 01:45:11 +0000
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