The Oregon Film Museum in the former Clatsop County Jail in Astoria

How The Goonies keeps paying off for Astoria

ByMegan Harlow

Photo: Another Believer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Goonies was filmed in and around Astoria in 1984 and released the next year. The plot, about a group of kids trying to save their homes from foreclosure, played out in real Astoria houses and locations, along with scenes at Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park.

Few small towns have benefited as long from one movie. Fans still come from all over the world, often walking up to the house used as Mikey’s home, a private residence on a residential street. The traffic got heavy enough that the owners and the city have at times restricted access to the property.

A museum in the old jail

The old Clatsop County Jail on Duane Street, built in 1913, appears in the movie’s opening jailbreak scene. It closed as a jail in the 1970s, and in 2010 the Clatsop County Historical Society reopened it as the Oregon Film Museum. The exhibits cover films shot in Oregon, including Kindergarten Cop, Short Circuit, Free Willy and others shot around Astoria.

Goonies Day

Astoria marks the anniversary of the film’s release on June 7 as Goonies Day, and major anniversaries have brought tens of thousands of visitors. The 25th anniversary in 2010 and the 30th in 2015 were both packed, and local hotels, restaurants and shops all saw the effect.

The limits

Film tourism is unpredictable. It depends on a movie that came out more than 40 years ago and on fans’ nostalgia, but it has proven durable. The city has also tried to attract new productions, and the state’s film incentive program has brought some projects to the coast. For Astoria, the hope is that a new generation of visitors will come for something beyond a single film.

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