Forks, Washington — Home of Twilight

There are very few reasons to travel to 3.5 hours northwest from Seattle to the remote city of Forks, Washington, unless you are a surfer, hiker or Twilight follower. Once the center of the Northwest logging industry during the 1980’s and early 90’s, Forks is making a comeback in a way most could never have foreseen — as the hometown of fictional teenager Bella Swan, the main character in the vampire-esque book series, and now hit movie, Twilight.

As one of those hikers and surfers who has traveled through Forks on my way to La Push’s First Beach — the site where Bella came to meet up with Jacob Black who revealed the truth about Edward — I can tell ya, it is the perfect place to play host to the Twilight book series.

Forks has a population of 3,100 and is the rainiest city in the 48 contiguous states with 119 inches of rain a year. Chances are it is dark and gloomy, which is a main reason why Twilight’s author, Stephenie Meyer — who never visited Forks – chose it for its fascinatingly lush, mossy setting. Most residents live and work in and around the area because the next closest city, Port Angeles, is a long and windy hour drive away. To be perfectly honest, Forks is in the middle of nowhere, the resources are limited, it has very few days of sunshine per year and the closest Nordstrom is at least three hours away!

The City of Forks has reported an increase in tourists and avid fans who are trying to get a closer look at the town the Swan’s and Cullen’s call home. The map above of downtown Forks shows the Swan and Cullen homes, Forks High School, the Forks Community High School and the Forks police station where Bella Swan’s father works. Ironically, most of Twilight was filmed in Oregon and some parts of Washington, but not Forks. (This is true — we called the Forks Chamber of Commerce to verify and to their dismay, not one scene was filmed in Forks. Oregon became the filming location choice due to tax concessions, lack of state sales tax and producers’ fears that little Forks could not accommodate all of their housing and culinary needs).

That’s OK. Forks is now the defacto Twilight shrine, with fans arriving from every corner of the U.S. All hail Forks, the new ground zero for anything vampire!