1985 EASTWOOD RAVINE

This text from the old version of the site – Update coming soon!

Filming Location from “Back to the Future”

Located in Port Hueneme, California

SEE THE END OF THIS ARTICLE FOR
LOCATION AND VISITING INFORMATION!

We are currently performing maintenance on this article. If you would like to contribute, please contact us via the main menu!

The Delorean Death Site / Finale Site – BTTFtour.com

Another BTTFtour.com first!! To our knowledge, for the first time we bring you photos and the directions to the location of the Back to the Future trilogy’s finále! A while back, world famous sidekick Tony P and I took to the streets of Port Hueneme, CA after carefully listening to the commentary on BTTF part IIII. We bought a map of Ventura county and literally visited EVERY street that had a railroad crossing in the city. After two trips and countless hours of searching, we found the site, in pristine 1990 condition, on the very southernmost tip of Ventura road, just before it dead ends into the ocean!

Here it is that the DeLorean met it’s untimely end, and here also is where Doc returns to give us all hope that someday, somehow, the Back to the Future story will live on..

In reality this junction is surrounded by high class apartments and townhomes and there are tons of people about by day – all of whom are completely oblivious to the fact that this, for BTTF fans worldwide, is sacred ground. The place the DeLorean that inspired millions of future owners of Gull-Wing doors met it’s end…

All I can say about this location is: VISIT and share your stories with us! We spent a lot of time tracking this site down and we hope that all of you BTTF fans will finally be able to enjoy a visit!

By the way, the best place to park is where Marty parks his truck in the movie (See screenshot below). The Townhouse/Condo complex just to the northeast of this RR junction has a driveway just north of the railroad tracks. Once inside, take the first right and head to the dead end. This may be private property though, so make sure there are no signs posted and that you always yield to the locals!

The Site in the Film – Screenshot from Back to the Future – Part III – 1990The real life intersection today. Nothing has changed.The ocean is a block away to the left of this shot.. We found this location on our own, by driving around Port Hueneme or about 6 hours.Here’s the intersection today. I know, the picture sucks. It was late in the day and the sun was setting. We will have more photos coming very soon! And when we do we’ll get the right angles.

ADDRESS: 301-319 4TH ST (S VENTURA RD), PORT HUENEME, CA

GPS COORDINATES: +34.144996, -119.195209

This text & these photos are from the OLD version of this website. Major update soon.

Filming Location from “Back to the Future III”

Located in Oxnard, California

SEE THE END OF THIS ARTICLE FOR
LOCATION AND VISITING INFORMATION!

We are currently performing maintenance on this article. If you would like to contribute, please contact us via the main menu!

After a LOT of searching and wandering all over Oxnard, the staff at BTTFtour.com brings you the very first images and directions to this location on the net. Another first! More than one other site have promised to get photos of this location, but to my knowledge it never happened. So we bring you yet another location that many fans have been searching for.

Know how we found it? Driving around Oxnard with a map and hitting nearly every street that looked likely. It took many hours, but this is an easily recognizable location. Go see it for yourself and make sure to send us any photos you think we should have on the site!

Just make sure when you visit not to hit anyone’s Rolls-Royce!

(This is currently the only website we know of, in English, to give this specific location in detail. There’s been a certain amount of debate whether or not it’s the first. Let me put it this way, we didn’t know where it was, we had to drive around Oxnard for hours and hours and hours.)

Hilldale 1985 in the Film – Screenshot from Back to the Future – Part III – 1990

The real life intersection today. Aside from a few palm trees and the natural growth of plants etc, the location has changed very little! The field across the street (and behind the camera) is virtually unchanged whatsoever!

Doris ave just west of Oxford Ave, Oxnard California. We found this location on our own, by driving around Oxnard constantly.

Here’s the street today. Photo by Tom Lewis

I know, the picture sucks. It was late and the sun was setting and blasting right into the camera lens. The next time we go to Oxnard, you will have better photos.

ADDRESS: DORIS AVE AT OXFORD DRIVE, OXNARD, CA

GPS COORDINATES: 34.208285,-119.197021

To say some awesome stuff is coming soon. Hang in there. We’ve got some exciting footage on the way in the next two weeks, as well as more recent photos for every location! So stay tuned!

In 1993, Kurt Bergeron visited and photographed the Hill Valley 1885 town set from Back to the Future Part III. This is his story and his photographs of the town before it burned down. For more information on this location visit our main article.

I’d like to first say thank you for doing what you’ve done! I’ve visited a few of these locations and the others I plan to visit in the very near future. That said, I’d like to add my own experiences regarding the 1885 Hill Valley set. In June of 1993 I spent my 14th birthday sitting in the back of my parent’s car as we drove across the country. We zig-zagged through the states and followed the Lewis & Clark trail as we got further out west. At the time, I had only two destinations in my mind. One was the Hill Valley set at Universal Studios, Ca. and the other was the Back to the Future III set, which I knew was located in Sonora, Ca. I knew this from an interview I had read in one of the issues of my Back to the Future Fan Club Magazine.

Getting to the location, as you said is easier said than done, and actually, it’s not even easily said. My father knew that finding these destinations would be a dream come true for me, but finding the BTTF III set took us almost 100 miles out of our way. We had just gone through the west gate of Yosemite National Park and made our way to Sonora. We were equipped with no further information other than the name of the town. Sonora is located around the intersection of the California State Highways 49 and 108.

We drove back and forth through Sonora with our eyes peeled for anything BTTF. There were no signs whatsoever of ANY movie being filmed there all, let along BTTF III. This was surprising as Sonora is such a tiny place (only 3 square miles) and not only had the infamous trilogy filmed there but other westerns including Little House on the Prairie, Bad Girls, Unforgiven, The Mask of Zorro, Randolph Scott films, I mean, you’d think they’d enjoy the publicity! (Of course Bad Girls and Zorro were filmed after our visit). Regardless, my father rightfully assumed that a movie as big as BTTF might have a sign on the road to visit the set as a tourist attraction. This is absolutely not so! Eventually we pulled into a small gas station to ask the local attendant. I ran in. “Excuse me,” I said. “But could you please tell me where the Back to the Future III set is?” “Back to the Future!?” he responded back, “Did they film that here?” Heartbroken is a word you could use to describe my feelings at that moment. With my head hung down and my tail between the legs I wondered back to my family’s car. That was it, we drove 100 miles out of our way for nothing. And that’s when it happened. “Excuse me,” a woman asked. I looked up in surprise. “But are you looking for the Back to the Future set?” She had been inside the gas station and apparently overheard me ask the attendant. “Yes…,” I said excitedly as hope returned to my system. “Well I was actually an extra in the movie. If you want to follow me I’ll show you where it is.” What were the odds of that!!!?? She explained to us who she was in the film and I’ve since watched the movie and picked her out, but based on the fact that this is trespassing, I’ve decided to leave her identity a secret.

 We followed her. I don’t recall how far we drove but it wasn’t long at all before she pulled over to the side of the road. I looked around. There was a billboard nearby, a bush and a fence running all along the road, which separated the road from an enormous amount of land. We approached her confused. She told us that the property was private but pointed to a biplane off in the distance. “You see that plane,” she asked my brother and I. “Yes,” we said. “It’s right around there,” she explained to us. “It’s right under that plane.” I responded in sadness, “Well there’s no way in. This is private property and we’re all fenced out.” “Well……” she continued and pointed to the bush. (I was beginning to love this woman) “Behind that bush there’s a hole in the fence if you really want to get in.” I’m not saying she condoned it but she certainly gave us the opportunity to make our own decision. In fact, she actually cautioned us about sticking around. She further explained that the property the set was on is actually split between two towns, although the town below us had been cut out of the proceeds from the film and they are NOT happy about it! In fact, the town’s police force is reportedly notorious for bagging fans.

There was no way in hell my parents were going to give me permission to risk that. How shocked I was when they returned to the car and pulled out a map “pretending” to look busy as my brother and I scurried through the hole. I admit it wasn’t the best plan but it was all we had and the only chance that I had to ever see the set at all. An executive decision was made, and we went for it. (Note: I have no idea if the hole is still there, it might have been repaired by now)

The remains of Marty & Doc’s campfire

To reiterate. You can NOT see Hill Valley from the road, and if you ever DO attempt to cross the property, do NOT expect a simple brisk walk. You are in for a little adventure! Tumbleweed, for a boy from New England is something that you only see in old western films. You don’t expect it to be real until it literally crosses your path, and it did. Snakes were another villain that we were told to beware of. I can’t express the joy I felt when we finally hit the railroad tracks. I have to admit I was shocked to see them. Being someone who works in film, and realizing how movies are made, I was surprised that the tracks were anywhere near the Hill Valley set at all, but a portion of the track IS connected to the Hill Valley of 1885. The first sight I saw was a large grey building, which I instantly recognized from being in the background of the film where Marty and Doc unloaded the car onto the tracks. Beside the tracks there was a circular area of burned away grass and some wood remains. I believe it to be where Marty and Doc had their camp fire beside which Marty woke up alone to find Doc with his whiskey in the saloon. My brother ran ahead but I was the fan who had to take in every aspect of everything I saw in the area. I was in BTTF heaven.

As I closed in on Hill Valley I started to take pictures again. My plan was to take a picture of every part of that town. The individual buildings, the clock tower, I would enter the saloon. All of my dreams were about to come true. As I was entering the town and about to take another picture, my brother came running towards me with no intention of stopping. “Run!” he shouted. I started to follow. (That’s what you do when someone yells “Run!”) I was shocked, confused, heartbroken, and now out of breath. “Why!?” I shouted back, upset that he would take me from this!

Hill Valley 1885 Set

Well, this next part takes a little bit of explaining. When the film’s extra brought us to the set she explained that the set was highly blocked off because individuals had been trespassing (hee hee) and breaking pieces off of the set as souvenirs. While I was starting to enter Hill Valley, my brother had already neared the saloon. Even at 15, that boy could drink! Outside the Saloon, by the hitching posts he found 3 large dobermans who were just as surprised to see HIM, and they were NOT especially happy about it. He ran from the growling dogs. (Another Note: running away from prey is not traditionally viewed as the best way to escape a predator although sometimes it seems like the logical thing to do.) I’ve always assumed that the dogs were chained up. I can’t imagine why they didn’t chase us through the prairie. My brother assures me that they were not however and suggests that there might have been an electrical fence. I never looked back to find out. As were we running back on the tracks we had once again arrived at the point where the Delorean was unloaded. I reached down to that very point and grabbed a rock. That was it. My souvenir. A rock that had sat beneath the Delorean before it took it’s final travel through time. A rock, which fortunately, I still have.

Returning to the car, we concluded that day by heading to dinner in downtown Sonora. We ate at a Mexican restaurant (I believe it was the Main Street Cafe) and I sat in a chair by the window looking out at the street. Downtown Sonora is not so different from the Hill Valley of 1885. Just walking down the streets of that town you can very much feel as though you’re in the west with its wooden sidewalks and “old west shaped” store fronts and buildings. We confided in our waitress that we had just come from the set. She responded by telling us stories of when the film was shot there and how Michael J. Fox pumped gas in the town and how low and behold he actually enjoyed eating at the very restaurant we selected. He reportedly ate there on several occasions during the filming of the movie and his favorite place to sit? Was right at the window where I was seated. What an incredible day! It couldn’t have been more perfect. It was the kind of experience you just can’t plan.

I’m including the pictures that I WAS able to take. I wish I got some closer shots but unfortunately, what I have was all this fan-boy could get before running for my life. I am deeply saddened to hear that the set was burned down but feel fortunate to know that I was one of the few who was able to see it before the fire.

Back in 2008 Billie Price sent us these fantastic photos from Universal of the Courthouse Square during and immediately following the production of Back to the Future Part II. Enjoy!

Jeff Beard sent us in these great shots that are part of his BTTF instagram series. You can follow him at @welcometohillvalley  - Check them out below!

The latest news is that we’ve established that everyone’s got the wrong barn for the TwinLone Pines/Pine Ranch. It’s something we’ve suspected for years but only recently felt confident enough to publish - Read more here!

We’ve also added NEW Photos and Video to the 1955 Lyon Estates location and have more exciting updates on the way! We’re working out way back through the trilogy, updating all the articles and adding a ton of high resolution (past and present) photos to the photo galleries on each location. It’s painstaking work, but it’s happening. If anyone’s got a Time Machine and planning on visiting the locations in the greater LA area, give us a shout!

And if you have pictures or videos of these locations, DeLorean or not, send them to us! The best part of Back to the Future is there’s so many fans and such a great fan community. We’d love to hear from you about your location experiences! We weren’t getting email for the last two years but everything is resolved now, send away!

To be continued….

Some of the recent filming location article & photo updates;
1955 Twin Pines Ranch
1955 Lyon Estates
Alternate 1985 Strickland’s House
1955 Doc Brown Mansion
Alternate 1985 Biff’s Casino Exterior
Alternate 1985 Biff’s Casino Stairwell
Alternate 1985 Oak Park Cemetery
1985 Jennifer’s House

“Sorry about your barn”

The Peabody Farmhouse and Barn and Twin Pines Ranch filming Location from Back to the Future – AND WHY EVERYONE ON THE INTERNET IS WRONG ABOUT THIS ONE. See the end of this article for visiting information.

The Libyans have suddenly vanished, and so has the parking lot! That’s right, Marty has just successfully become the world’s first time traveler and driven straight into a barn at 88mph. After an out-of-this-world encounter with the local pine tree farmer and his family, Marty flees the barn and heads out of the area as fast as he can, destroying a prize pine as he goes. So where was the farmhouse, the barn, and the entrance to the Ranch? Glad you asked. LA film studios operate within a thirty mile zone to avoid paying extra fees to the union, so where do you find a farmhouse and a barn within thirty miles of Hollywood? Disney’s Golden Oak Ranch!

Little known beyond a small ring of Disney superfans and filming location enthusiasts, Disney’s Golden Oak Ranch was purchased in 1959 after using it for several years to film Spin N Marty. Over the years countless Disney classics were filmed on site, including The Parent Trap, Follow Me Boys!, and many others. Today, TV shows like The Office and big productions like the Pirates of the Caribbean still use the ranch as a filming location.

But because the site is completely off limits to the public – and we mean Period, no exceptions, EVER - it makes the location that much more interesting.

And of course, at BTTF tour, we along with all our predecessors have reported that the Ragwing Barn on the ranch stood in for the Peabody farm barn. I mean literally. Using every search engine known to man, we have determined that every Back to the Future website in English in the entire world lists the Ragwing Barn as the location of Marty’s crash. Every filming locations website, everywhere.

I hate to burst their bubble, but they’re wrong. All of them are wrong. Don’t get me wrong, we were wrong too. Have we used the word wrong enough to show you how wrong everyone was? (Ok, I’ll stop.) The Barn was NOT the Ragwing Barn, and the evidence is obvious. But forget that for a second, how could everyone unanimously make this mistake?

The simple truth is the matter is it’s so difficult to get in to the Golden Oak Ranch (a few have achieved it, but it often takes a long time and a lot of favors) that everyone just reported what the previous person reported on the internet. Bruce Gordon (who worked for Disney) visited the ranch in the 90s, looked around for a barn, saw the Ragwing barn, and decided that must be it. Later, Wesley Treat managed to get in to the ranch, and concluded the barn had “undergone some superficial changes,” and it spread to the rest of the internet as all of the brilliant copy-pasters did their work. We too, took their word for it because we hadn’t managed to make it inside the ranch. We jotted down the location, gave credit to the explorers past, and kept on going.

So why did Bruce, Wesley, and the rest of the internet miss the obvious? It’s easy to make this mistake. Visit any Hollywood backlot twice and you’ll see dramatic changes to the set buildings. They can turn anything into anything, and they do. Most movie ranches are full of temporary facade buildings that are reconstructed and shifted around constantly to suit the needs of a particular production.

But not the Ragwing Barn. Thanks to the folks at cinchset.com for devoting a serious, noteworthy amount of time and research we know all about the Ragwing Barn. Built in the 1920s (or earlier) the barn stood as an actual feed barn for decades until the sides were rebuilt and enclosed in 1972, giving it the look it has today. It has never been structurally modified since, and the aged wood beams inside prove it. See the bottom of this article for a link to a very detailed and well researched article on the Ragwing Barn!

So if we know the Ragwing Barn hasnt changed, we know that it’s too wide and deep to be the right barn. So where is the real barn at the Golden Oak Ranch? And where is the Peabody farm house? The short answer is, gone forever. Your next question will undoubtedly be the same as mine. Then where was this set located?

Well, there are only so many barns on the Golden Oak Ranch now, but there were more in previous years. The same holds true for farmhouse sets. And, don’t discount the fact that many productions build temporary sets from scratch on the ranch and either tear them down after production, or leave the structures standing to be used sporadically until they simply fall apart.

The long and the short of it is, the barn is gone. It’s not the Ragwing barn, and it’s not any barn that’s stood on the Golden Oak Ranch for at least 20 years. The same goes for the house. All we know is that they were sets on the ranch property, and they’ve gone the way of the parent trap set.

Having established the facts and burst literally every fans bubble, we can now all rampantly speculate. My few contacts at Disney simply don’t know what set it was. What I believe to be the house and Barn ARE visible in a production filmed on the ranch in 1977, but until I have screenshots and do a little more research I’ll keep it under my hat. I’m sure this will launch some controversy among fans, so I just wanna say, “Sorry about your barn.”

But for the Hard-Core, Die-Hard, Do-Whatever-It-Takes Back to the Future fan, you will remember that as Marty flees the ranch in the DeLorean he comes off of a dirt road and back out onto pavement just after he runs over that tree. Well that pavement is public property, baby! The gate Marty flees through is actually one of the many gated entrances to the ranch, and the exit into Placerita Canyon Rd is the same spot from which you can get your only legal peek at the other sets on the ranch.From our gallery you can see that the exit to the ranch looked exactly the same as in the film for years, but recently as Disney plans to expand the Ranch into a full fledged movie studio, they’ve revamped all the fencing around the property to look much more appealing and perhaps eco-friendly.

This is not recommended for people with a time restriction for their BTTF viewings, or people who can’t entertain themselves while driving in between locations. Compared to the other SoCal locations… this one’s out there.

Like I said earlier visit this website for the most complete history of the Ragwing barn available. This website contains more about the history of Golden Oak Ranch than any other you’ll find on the web, including Disney’s official ranch website. A special thanks to “K” for backing up my suspicions that we were all looking at the wrong barn with his research and expertise. Contact us at BTTFtour if you have a theory about the proper barn or spot it in other films!

This article has just been updated for 2013 – but we have a few more updates to come in March on this location. Now, hurry up so we can get to the recently updated Lyon Estates… in 1955!

ADDRESS: DISNEY’S GOLDEN OAK RANCH
19802 PLACERITA CANYON RD, NEWHALL, CA

GPS COORDINATES: 34.377331, -118.477120