Finally someone went and filmed the old town Hill Valley location.Plenty of video of people filming all the other locations of BTTFIII but never the town location...awesome
@@jbenziggy This was the best video I’ve seen in a long time. I loved Back To The Future 3. I used to explore the railroad tracks in Linden and Stockton. Stockton T&E Railroad. The tracks are gone now from Front Street in Linden. They went to the Diamond Walnut Plant at the intersection of Front Street, HWY 26(Linden Rd.), and Flood Rd. The Diamond Walnut Plant was visible in a scene from Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. The 1974 movie was filmed in the Linden area and starred Peter Fonda, Susan George, and, Vic Morrow. A great car chase movie that ended with a fiery Dodge Charger collision with a Stockton T&E railroad train. Might be a good subject for a History Hunters video?
They opened the set for tourists, for a VERY short time, after the filming was over. I took my shoulder held VCR Camera and took TONS of video. Even got to sit at the bar in the saloon! Good times. No clue where the old VHS tapes are, but I'm sure they've degraded since then :( Thanks for going back for us. I've taken my drone there several times, so maybe I can send you some footage of what I took. I live right above here, in Sonora!
What! PLEASE Look for those old tapes of yours and upload them to RUclips. That's cinema history and I know BTTF fans would love to see that. Me being one.
"Run for fun, what the hell kin'a fun is that?" Dude, I laughed my butt off as hard as I did when I saw the movie when you said that. One of my favorite scenes. You sounded just like him. Great (Scott) video! Hate to admit it but those Clint Eastwood nails would be now my nails, and the horse shoe would be hanging over my front door today! And isn't it funny, they filmed this in an area where the real Clint Eastwood did his filming? Wonder if it was intentional? "Woah this is get'n heavy.." 🚬👓...
I don't know how I missed watching this one until now. I am soooo impressed with the amount of research and time and energy you put into this video. Also, awesome pics with the actors! Looking at the number of comments, I guess I'm not the only who was impressed by this one :-)
Thanks Steve! I really appreciate it! I just followed up with your Little House episode this morning! Good job. Sorry to see that Big Sky was shut down to you. I always wanted to go there myself. I guess you have to be connected to the owner or something.
I met Clint Eastwood on the set for Flags of our Fathers, in Washington DC. He was very nice to me, and thanked me for my service in the Marine Corps. (I was an extra in the scene where they dedicate the Iwo Jima memorial, next to Arlington National Cemetary.)
A longtime friend and co-worker in the 1980s who has since passed away and his wife were extras in BTTF3, as town dancers. RIP Bill Herschcraft - he himself was a character.
Wow! Super comprehensive video with some things I didn't even notice on my frequent visits. I live about 15 minutes away in Sonora. A small unknown fact about the letter on the side of Table Mountain is that it does NOT stand for Sonora or a location. It actually stands for Summerville High School or Sonora High School, depending on whichever senior class is able to paint it in the respective orange and black or green and gold colors. It's been an impending high school rivalry over the years, and my friends and I were lucky enough to make the trek out to the location on October 21st 2015, being the day that Marty and Doc arrive in the future. Surprisingly, we were the only ones out there but it was a moment that only happened once ever!
That model train looked totally real, CGI does not..... today this whole movie would be shot in a giant room painted green. Edit- Everything will be CGI cartoons, drawn on a computer now - ruclips.net/video/hTYeUU-FSVs/видео.htmlsi=ZiB9ly0K6tYHxvHP 🙁
Yep, 1989 was the tail end of the great Hollywood movie era, today's movies look fake no matter how well the CGI looks compared to the models used back then. It's mostly due to the fact that the models are filmed in the same scene so they don't appear color mismatched like CGI does. Although CGI backgrounds and such look much better in some instances.
It would be nice if they would go back to the film elements for some effects shots, scan them, and re-composite everything. Just to make it look more real, like when the Delorean goes through time the first time and the flames go through their feet, that's a problem effect, or when Doc and Clara fly off on the hoverboard. But, all in all, they're classics and it's just nitpicking.
@@sgtpepper1138 please no George Lucas practices... Steven Spielberg did this once and regretted it. The movie is fine as is. Please don't take the nostalgia away. 😉
I lived in Copperopolis when they were filming. Seen cast at the lake a few times on their down time. It was a big deal there when they filmed this. Cool stuff 😎
3:50 That must've been a very good model, as when I watched the movie some years ago (and found why so many people love the trilogy, particularly part 2), I thought a real train was destroyed!
I lived in Sonora when it was being filmed and my brother in law helped build the western set, he's no longer with us, but I was married in 89 I think it was filmed in 88/89. Yes little house filmed around the area quite a bit when I was growing up.. you can ask most of the middle aged locals that lived there their entire lives. Enjoy the beauty and don't forget to visit Columbia Clint Eastwood and others were on set there.. Too bad she didn't enjoy herself next time take me 😊
Thanks Jeff & Sarah for the Story/History on the BTTF III Set. I'm a writer/director developing a project working on re-purposing a Western Set in Berkley Springs, WV currently. It takes so much work, to create the illusion of a period from the past. But when there's a compelling story behind it, the Set is the forgotten Character, revealing itself in every scene !
I find it amazing that you can make an abandoned R/R track a bunch of dried up weeds and piles of rocks such an interesting subject. You two are unreal, I wish had 1/2 Sarah's energy and climbing ability. She's always way ahead of you climbing on stuff that she shouldn't. Keep'em coming and I'll keep watch'in.
Track is far from abandoned, it still in use by the Sierra Railway and the locomotive used in BTTF 3, Sierra Railway #3, still runs past the movie site on passenger excursions
How sad that this location has been lost, the Back to the Future saga, is one of my favorites, especially part III. Excellent video, greetings from Mendoza - Argentina
I live about 20-30 mins from this place and had known they filmed it somewhere in the vicinity of Jamestown, but didn't know exactly where. Thanks to your video I was able to find the same train tracks used for some of those sequences and even included the section of tracks used in the robbery scene in one of my own short films! Thanks for the history and guidance to this location, it was the exact look I was visualizing!
@@shelleyUSATX I like all three movies but #1 and #3 are my favorite. The old west is my interest so this movie had the greatest appeal. I thought it was well done. The end is a bit outlandish though.
@@jbenziggy It is, but it gives a young mind something to ponder over. I know the first time I saw BTTF in 1985, I watched it over and over so I could see everything one more time.lol I think we all love the idea of time travel, which made it the hit that it was, don't you agree?
@@shelleyUSATX definitely. You have to think about if we can time travel we can then alter history, like Doc Brown warned against. But of course time travel is an impossibility but the films are just plain fun!
Thank you for bringing me with you for these history classes. I love this. You bring me where I can't go, because I'm disabled and can't walk very far. I love history especially back in the 1800's.
Wow what a nice compliment. You’re welcome. Sorry you can’t get around anymore. We will try to make you feel like you’re there visiting places with us! Thank you very much!
"Hey McFly!......"🤠 Wow great video, I always assumed this was filmed on the Universal back lot. My favorite movies of all time, so many little details that all connect later. I love in the scene when the Doc asks the engineer how fast the locomotive can go you can see the clock for the courthouse being unloaded from the train in the background. "What will happen to the train Doc?"....."It will be a spectacular wreck to bad no one will be arround to see it" LOL.
Thank you! Yes, it was filmed right there in Tuolumne County. I understand Michael J. Fox and others hung out a lot in Sonora. He even rented out the entire movie theater so they could watch a movie without gawkers!
Even if those structures hadn't burned down there probably wouldn't be much left of it anyway because by now people would have picked it apart taking this & that for "memorabilia".
Or sell them on ebay. If these buildings were still there a lot of it would indeed be gone now, as people would have taken little trinkets to own a piece of movie history. This looks to be in a remote area and as such, they would have to employ security 24/7 to prevent things from disappearing but that obviously wouldn't be feasible.
Just the elements alone would have probably brought most of them down by now anyway. Most of the buildings were mainly set pieces and not built for very long term use anyway. That's how almost all movie sets are made, very cheap and can look the part.
Just up the tracks a mile (east) or so is a home with a private dirt airstrip on it. Several shots of Back to the Future III were filmed on the strip. Also lots of support equipment was stored there. The owners home was used for the stars to change wardrobes and relax too. The owners of the property has several photo albums of the movie being filmed and the stars relaxing.
I am massively into the filmmaking process and I love the Back to the Future movies. Your film was very informative and really interesting. Thank you for making this... the power of RUclips :) Best - Scott UK 🎥
I remember hauling gravel in to build a road up the side of the mountain to move the trucks to film the overhead shot of the town. Also the water tower was used in Petiecoat Juchtion.
Glad you liked it! Yeah it would have been a tragedy to ruin a good historic train engine for that shot but it looked so real I thought, "What did they do?!!!"
Here's a fun fact, what many don't realize is when they were mining woodcreek during the gold rush (that runs through that area), that's where Grizzly Adams was. he was such a lousy minor that he made his money supplying the camp with meat hunted from the local Stanislaus national/Sierra national Forest just East up the hill in tuolumne county. He Used grizzly bears as pack animals and it was one of his bears that was used for the Ca state flag.
My wife worked at an "Antique" store in Jamestown and they were in buying incidentals to fill up the buildings almost every day. Every night after filming a limo would drop Christopher Lloyd off at The Rawhide Saloon in Jamestown and pick him up about closing. By the way, about a mile further up the track is or was the water tank used for the opening scene of Petticoat Junction. And somewhere near there is the location of the bus crash from Another 48 Hours.
@@jbenziggy Thank you for the great research of the BTTF 3 Movie. Could it be that the Train Track is next to the CA-108/120 Highway in the Red Hills Area? I havent been able to visit the USA yet so i tried to find it on Google Maps. kind regards from Germany
Your connections and history to the filming of these movies was so interesting, and your knowledge is amazing. It's like you have IMDb in your head! Not sure your other half shares the same film enthusiasm, I can empathize! So well done, loved it 👍
Good exercise walking on or alongside those tracks and it would be fun and quite adventurous to use a handcart on the tracks. Lots of good movies done there for sure.
My grandma got to meet Christopher Lloyd when they were filming Part 3 there. She even got an autograph from him, which very sadly got lost in an unrelated building fire.
Found your channel after watching a video covering BttF III on Minty Comedic Arts channel and he mentioned the old west set was left intact after filming was completed. Didn't know it burned nor the areas connection to other westerns until your video. Thank you.
A really excellent video and extremely well done. The way it's all put together with scenes from the actual movie is very well done and you can see the locations today. This is one I will save in my bookmarks to watch again and again... Thanks so much for your time, effort, and expert narrating...
My dad worked in Yosemite at Badger Pass Ski Resort. He was a Maintenance supervisor. After 21 years, MCA corporation, who owned Curry company, told my dad that they were going to open another theme park in Florida and wanted my dad to come out and help build and run Universal Studios, Florida. One of the rides there was Back to the Future. It was the number one virtual reality ride in the world at the time.
Started watching the channel for the movie locations(I'm wildly obsessed with old movie ranches) but have kept binging the videos for the dynamic of you two guys. Sarah couldn't give a crap and it's delightful.
This was the first video of yours that I've watch, since I'm a huge fan of Back to the future series, and was interested on the filming location, thanks to youtube. The bee scare the heck out of me that I almost toss my tablet thinking it was right in front of me!LOL! Thankyou so much for making this awesome video.😀
That's the Red Hills, BLM land, with a National Guard range. Used to shoot and hunt there all the time when it was still OK to shoot there. Walked every inch of that track from Red Hills down to Waterford, hunting small game, ducks and geese. My dentist chair had a view out into some woods in Twain Harte and, whilst having a wisdom tooth removed, saw Michael J. and his wife walking along. Worked at the Keystone briefly, and my last day in the Sierra was walking past an old LHOTP set up on Dusckwall Mountain on the Murphy Ranch. Man, makes me homesick seeing all this. Gonna watch it again. Thank you.
I'd love to hear what you know about Little House. I know Landon was up there a lot. In fact I met him while he filmed Highway to Heaven. My high school teacher told us of how Landon used his ranch near Jamestown for shooting scenes. Said Melissa Gilbert was cute as a bug!
@@jbenziggy Oh,I don't really know a lot about it. I worked in the woods, and much of that work was up the Cottonwood Road out of Tuolumne City at Cherry Lake (walked a heckuva lot of the Westside Railway, too), on both private and public timber lands. Duckwall Mountain and the Murphy Ranch were frequent filming spots and we'd come across their caravans on the road now and then. You'd see cast members wandering around Sonora sometimes. Victor French spotted me ten bucks to sit in on a poker with him at the County Jail Saloon. Met Michael, too, briefly, and they were all really nice, genuine folks. The last job I had in '91, the day before I left CA for good, I was hiking out onto the Cottonwood and came across an old cabin set with, you guessed it, those very same fake brick works on the interior, for a fireplace. That structure in the Red Hills for BTTF3 background, looks like a mine entrance with a sluice kinda, was a LHOTP set. We used to love to play cowboys and Indians in the Red Hills when we were kids 'cuz it looked so much like the movies, with no idea of all the filming going on there. Warren Haack's "Muerte en la Sierra" was filmed in the Red Hills and Mother Lode, too, as is only right as it was about Jouquin Murrieta (we were all friends in that one, had a ball. I'm riding the red roan Appaloosa). I was an extra in a Don Johnson western TV pilot shot in Columbia. It's how I took my handle...I'm the blond guy on the sorrel horse with a bowler hat...Blond Bowler.
@@jbenziggy Post Script: Just talked to my son who still lives in Sonora. For years he worked for an old boy in Soulsbyville who had a little sawmill and cut rough lumber to order. He passed away a couple years ago, but my son reminded me that he cut all the lumber for the BTTF3 set. Had about six months work out of it. Just thinking that piece of wood you found might very well have been handled by our old friend Bob. RIP, Bob. Your M1 is safe. I imagine he also did some work for LHOTP, as he was actively milling at that time, as I remember.
I drove by there many times at night over the summer that BTTF 3 was filming....the whole area was lit up.....,there were a lot of night time scenes. It broke my heart in '96 when the set burned down. Good episode! (Sarah cracks me up!)
Great episode! this trilogy is what I grew up on! They filmed this movie when i was born so it is quite special for me you ever look for some of the locations that they filmed the old Combat! tv series around SoCal? would be real cool to see then and now
Stumbled across your channel, and I'm totally hooked on it. I like how you fill it with interesting facts about the movies filmed in the area, very informative, well done.
Being into Genealogy, having the ability to go back in time like this would be the opportunity of a lifetime! Imagine meeting and chatting w/your 2nd or 3rd gr- Grandfather and his family!
I absolutely loved these movies as a kid growing up. They were so amazing magic.. I always thought this was a real train going over a cliff I had no idea it was a model.. it fed me. Thanks for making the video…
Great video, it is too bad that everything burned down. It would be cool too see after all these years and makes you wonder how many more movies could of been made there in the past 30 years. I'd enjoy a day out there with a metal detector and see what I could find, besides a bunch of nails.
Sarah is a good woman you've got there. Don't let her go. Watching the two of you explore, I dearly miss my departed exploring buddy, who was my wife. We visited the Railtown 1897 Historic Park a couple times, and explored the roundhouse and the water tower and depot areas, where so many of the Little House on the Prairie episodes we loved were filmed, but sadly we never got around to riding the train together. My favorite interaction between the two of you in the video... You: "Look! It's brown!" Sarah: "Look, it's brown ..." (sarcasm)
Even if it hadn't burned down there wouldn't be much left of it anyway because by now people would have picked it apart taking this & that for "memorabilia".
@@ComputerLearning0 Sadly, you are 'spot on' correct -- the depths of humanity would have it unrecognizable by a couple years' time. It would take the state of CA to fund 24/7 security to ensure its preservation -- like the state does with Bodie, a real ghost town with tons of history.
Great episode! I really enjoy the movie locations you and Sarah visit. Did you get a new camera? The video seemed really crisp/high def. Thanks for sharing
KC Gunkerstein It could be that you weren’t watching our prior videos at the highest setting for performance. A lot of people probably don’t know that they can change the quality rate at which they watch it. But having said that since August I’ve been using the GoPro 7 which has better image stabilization. Thank you for your compliments. We appreciate you as a viewer!
Check the video at 1:46 and look at the cloud in the top-right corner of the screen, just above the trees. That cloud resembles the hat Doc Brown wore in BTTF3! Apparently the Doc is still there in spirit. 😁
Be sure to check out my video coming out tomorrow morning about the Back to the Future III event that was held in Columbia this past weekend. It’s going to be our longest and best video in my opinion!
Thanks Jeff for taking us places we can't seem to find,those wonderful out of the way places you find for us. There were train rides but only a mile out on those same tracks during the very last Western Film Fest in James town.That last film fest was a doozy. Actors from Little House", Dukes of Hazzard", "Norhern Exposure" were there.. The funniest actor there by far was James(Jimmy)Best who played the part of the sheriff in Dukes of Hazzard. He spoke in the same vocal jargon as he did in the Dukes and a crowd of 20 or more followed him around most of the day, laughing. Thanks for those memories. Jim&Angie
I second Sarah's wish to hop on a handcar, placed on the rails, pump that thing down and up to go for a leisurely, invigorating ride up and down the tracks! Fun. Thanks for posting, Jeff and Sarah. BTW, kudos to your post production individual who locates clips from "The Apple Dumpling Gang," "Bad Girls" + "Little House on the Prairie" publicity photos pertinent to the video and for the assemblage of the dozens of brief, relevant, nostalgic "BTTF3" clips/scenes that add so much to "History Hunters." How interesting to hear it's Michael J. Fox's apparent fondness for westerns that initiated this large construction project in wide open spaces. Notice how much more "open" this "BTTF 3" set looks on screen compared to the one we saw last year in "Once Upon a Time . . . In Hollywood" for the "Lancer" filming pilot scenes. That one was hindered by being constructed within the confines of the little that remains of Universal Studios' western set and its appearance feels claustrophobic; the buildings on one side of the street are much too close to the opposite side. There's no "vista." Jeff, your "history" from that long ago Christmas visit / trespassing and your enthusiastic, subsequent research and detailed descriptions and analysis add to and make an enjoyable viewing experience. I think of the WONDERFUL, great CA state park, Bodie (i.e., the ghost town, the PROTECTED ghost town), and how its designation as gov't property status and accompanying 24/7 rangers and security have put off the inevitable acts of thievery, vandalism and arson. Had Hill Valley not been nuked in the '90s inferno, keeping it "as is" from its glorious movie appearance would require full time security details. The town of Jamestown or the state of CA would have to do some serious debating on whether they could fund the significant liability insurance premium(s), upkeep, preservation and full-time security personnel. I was disappointed to discover the state's tourist railroad set-up, Railtown 1897, which has good static displays, the roundhouse, depot, rolling stock, "Petticoat Junction" water tank / tower and too-short train rides on a couple miles of track near the roundhouse (which I toured and rode in 2014) doesn't offer the public train rides on this scenic, historic track we see displayed over and over in your video and the relevant clips from movies. THAT would go over well, BIG time, $$$$, because nostalgia of all the movie and television tie-ins. IMO. Finally, I'll offer that the nearby, closest town of Jamestown is a nice spot to be a tourist. . . . Well, I've overstayed my welcome on this thread. "All Aboard!!"
This trilogy will never get old.
It is a great series of movies!
Ys curry man
gets old
@@Sierralovescharles watched*
Yes truly
Finally someone went and filmed the old town Hill Valley location.Plenty of video of people filming all the other locations of BTTFIII but never the town location...awesome
Thanks very much for watching and commenting! We appreciate it!
@@jbenziggy This was the best video I’ve seen in a long time. I loved Back To The Future 3. I used to explore the railroad tracks in Linden and Stockton. Stockton T&E Railroad. The tracks are gone now from Front Street in Linden. They went to the Diamond Walnut Plant at the intersection of Front Street, HWY 26(Linden Rd.), and Flood Rd. The Diamond Walnut Plant was visible in a scene from Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. The 1974 movie was filmed in the Linden area and starred Peter Fonda, Susan George, and, Vic Morrow. A great car chase movie that ended with a fiery Dodge Charger collision with a Stockton T&E railroad train. Might be a good subject for a History Hunters video?
Jeff's mimicry of Pat Buttram at 13:48 is right smack on the mark! And it's not an easy voice to do. Fabulous!!
"Looks like he got that off'n a dead chinese!!!"
Could you imagine a celebrity today getting off a train and taking a photo with someone?? Few and far in between.Miss these days. Thx for sharing
Well Kenny was a genuinely nice, down to earth guy! Thanks for watching!
The horseshoe is the one that Buford's horse threw and the reason he was going to kill Doc. eBay!!!!
There's a fortune to be made!
You never paid for that shoeing Tannen...
"GREAT SCOTT! Your probably right ! And here it is, after 136yrs still where the horse threw it. Amazing !"
"Woah, this is get'n heavy Doc.."
🚬👓...
Sounds like a plot waiting to happen for part 4! Like the sports almanac.
He doesn't need eBay, he's making sustantial money doing that exact same thing on video... 🤷♂️
They opened the set for tourists, for a VERY short time, after the filming was over. I took my shoulder held VCR Camera and took TONS of video. Even got to sit at the bar in the saloon! Good times. No clue where the old VHS tapes are, but I'm sure they've degraded since then :( Thanks for going back for us. I've taken my drone there several times, so maybe I can send you some footage of what I took. I live right above here, in Sonora!
What! PLEASE Look for those old tapes of yours and upload them to RUclips. That's cinema history and I know BTTF fans would love to see that. Me being one.
Absolutely!@@eliasbarboza9250
Find them...Plenty of places can restore and digitize those VHS tapes.
Please find them!
Yes please 🙏 find them!
"Run for fun, what the hell kin'a fun is that?"
Dude, I laughed my butt off as hard as I did when I saw the movie when you said that. One of my favorite scenes. You sounded just like him. Great (Scott) video!
Hate to admit it but those Clint Eastwood nails would be now my nails, and the horse shoe would be hanging over my front door today! And isn't it funny, they filmed this in an area where the real Clint Eastwood did his filming? Wonder if it was intentional?
"Woah this is get'n heavy.."
🚬👓...
I grew up near there. I visited the set (after the movie). The watchman in the trailer allowed me to walk around. Pretty cool stuff
Back to the Future lll was my favorite! My husband, a grandson, our son and I loved the entire trilogy!!
That's awesome!
I don't know how I missed watching this one until now. I am soooo impressed with the amount of research and time and energy you put into this video. Also, awesome pics with the actors! Looking at the number of comments, I guess I'm not the only who was impressed by this one :-)
Thanks Steve! I really appreciate it! I just followed up with your Little House episode this morning! Good job. Sorry to see that Big Sky was shut down to you. I always wanted to go there myself. I guess you have to be connected to the owner or something.
I met Clint Eastwood on the set for Flags of our Fathers, in Washington DC. He was very nice to me, and thanked me for my service in the Marine Corps.
(I was an extra in the scene where they dedicate the Iwo Jima memorial, next to Arlington National Cemetary.)
That's great! Never got to meet Clint but I did sleep in the same motel room he slept in while in Jamestown filming Pale Rider!
@@jbenziggy Very cool!!
Aussie Cockatoo it’s because Australia isn’t real
Oh no you didn't, and no you wasn't. I small B.S
A longtime friend and co-worker in the 1980s who has since passed away and his wife were extras in BTTF3, as town dancers. RIP Bill Herschcraft - he himself was a character.
Credit to you for the amount of research you've done and how you have tied it to all these movies
Bill L I appreciate your nice words! Thank you!!!
wonderful video. Thanks, man. You have a great presence.
Wow! Super comprehensive video with some things I didn't even notice on my frequent visits. I live about 15 minutes away in Sonora. A small unknown fact about the letter on the side of Table Mountain is that it does NOT stand for Sonora or a location. It actually stands for Summerville High School or Sonora High School, depending on whichever senior class is able to paint it in the respective orange and black or green and gold colors. It's been an impending high school rivalry over the years, and my friends and I were lucky enough to make the trek out to the location on October 21st 2015, being the day that Marty and Doc arrive in the future. Surprisingly, we were the only ones out there but it was a moment that only happened once ever!
That model train looked totally real, CGI does not..... today this whole movie would be shot in a giant room painted green.
Edit- Everything will be CGI cartoons, drawn on a computer now - ruclips.net/video/hTYeUU-FSVs/видео.htmlsi=ZiB9ly0K6tYHxvHP 🙁
Yep, 1989 was the tail end of the great Hollywood movie era, today's movies look fake no matter how well the CGI looks compared to the models used back then. It's mostly due to the fact that the models are filmed in the same scene so they don't appear color mismatched like CGI does. Although CGI backgrounds and such look much better in some instances.
It would be nice if they would go back to the film elements for some effects shots, scan them, and re-composite everything. Just to make it look more real, like when the Delorean goes through time the first time and the flames go through their feet, that's a problem effect, or when Doc and Clara fly off on the hoverboard. But, all in all, they're classics and it's just nitpicking.
@@sgtpepper1138 please no George Lucas practices... Steven Spielberg did this once and regretted it. The movie is fine as is. Please don't take the nostalgia away. 😉
Yes, CGI bad, practical effects good
I think that they try to make CGI look so real, that it almost looks fake.
I lived in Copperopolis when they were filming. Seen cast at the lake a few times on their down time. It was a big deal there when they filmed this. Cool stuff 😎
You're in my stomping grounds. I remember when they came to Tuolumne county. Michael J Fox was very nice to locals.
We don't live far from there and oh how I wish I would have been able to see these guys. I had no idea they were hanging out a lot in Sonora!
2:45 The Apple Dumpling Gang was released in July of 1975, so they were most likely filming that scene sometime in 1974 😊
3:50 That must've been a very good model, as when I watched the movie some years ago (and found why so many people love the trilogy, particularly part 2), I thought a real train was destroyed!
I lived in Sonora when it was being filmed and my brother in law helped build the western set, he's no longer with us, but I was married in 89 I think it was filmed in 88/89.
Yes little house filmed around the area quite a bit when I was growing up.. you can ask most of the middle aged locals that lived there their entire lives.
Enjoy the beauty and don't forget to visit Columbia Clint Eastwood and others were on set there..
Too bad she didn't enjoy herself next time take me 😊
Thanks Jeff & Sarah for the Story/History on the BTTF III Set. I'm a writer/director developing a project working on re-purposing a Western Set in Berkley Springs, WV currently. It takes so much work, to create the illusion of a period from the past. But when there's a compelling story behind it, the Set is the forgotten Character, revealing itself in every scene !
I find it amazing that you can make an abandoned R/R track a bunch of dried up weeds and piles of rocks such an interesting subject.
You two are unreal, I wish had 1/2 Sarah's energy and climbing ability. She's always way ahead of you climbing on stuff that she shouldn't.
Keep'em coming and I'll keep watch'in.
Thank you very much, Michael! Sarah and I appreciate the nice things you had to say! Sounds like you really like our videos! Blessings!
Track is far from abandoned, it still in use by the Sierra Railway and the locomotive used in BTTF 3, Sierra Railway #3, still runs past the movie site on passenger excursions
Interesting cause it was one of the biggest trilogies filming locations 😂 you make it sound like some random location
How sad that this location has been lost, the Back to the Future saga, is one of my favorites, especially part III. Excellent video, greetings from Mendoza - Argentina
Lost? Then why is it in the video?
I live about 20-30 mins from this place and had known they filmed it somewhere in the vicinity of Jamestown, but didn't know exactly where. Thanks to your video I was able to find the same train tracks used for some of those sequences and even included the section of tracks used in the robbery scene in one of my own short films! Thanks for the history and guidance to this location, it was the exact look I was visualizing!
How long did u live in the area for? During the time of filming?
@@unsure8824 41 years I've lived here. :)
In the late 50s they shot Rawhide in the same area! That least that’s what I was told!
Just watched this last night with my 9 year old granddaughter. She loved it.
Wow, Shelley! That's great to hear! Had she seen the movie before?
@@jbenziggy No she hadn't. We had just watched the first one and I told her this was better than 2. She thoroughly enjoyed it.
@@shelleyUSATX I like all three movies but #1 and #3 are my favorite. The old west is my interest so this movie had the greatest appeal. I thought it was well done. The end is a bit outlandish though.
@@jbenziggy It is, but it gives a young mind something to ponder over. I know the first time I saw BTTF in 1985, I watched it over and over so I could see everything one more time.lol I think we all love the idea of time travel, which made it the hit that it was, don't you agree?
@@shelleyUSATX definitely. You have to think about if we can time travel we can then alter history, like Doc Brown warned against. But of course time travel is an impossibility but the films are just plain fun!
Love your channel! I’ve learned a lot about historical places, and just life, in general. Thank You for John and Sara for your time and effort..
Good history lessons and flashbacks of the movie filmed locally in the hills of the Central Valley
Thank you very much, Kevin! Glad you enjoy our travels to historical places!
Thank you for bringing me with you for these history classes. I love this. You bring me where I can't go, because I'm disabled and can't walk very far. I love history especially back in the 1800's.
Wow what a nice compliment. You’re welcome. Sorry you can’t get around anymore. We will try to make you feel like you’re there visiting places with us! Thank you very much!
Best trilogy of all time... smashing the like button..TCB⚡
Thank ya very much, Elvis! I love your music, too! LOL
"Hey McFly!......"🤠 Wow great video, I always assumed this was filmed on the Universal back lot. My favorite movies of all time, so many little details that all connect later. I love in the scene when the Doc asks the engineer how fast the locomotive can go you can see the clock for the courthouse being unloaded from the train in the background. "What will happen to the train Doc?"....."It will be a spectacular wreck to bad no one will be arround to see it" LOL.
Thank you! Yes, it was filmed right there in Tuolumne County. I understand Michael J. Fox and others hung out a lot in Sonora. He even rented out the entire movie theater so they could watch a movie without gawkers!
Even if those structures hadn't burned down there probably wouldn't be much left of it anyway because by now people would have picked it apart taking this & that for "memorabilia".
Or sell them on ebay.
If these buildings were still there a lot of it would indeed be gone now, as people would have taken little trinkets to own a piece of movie history. This looks to be in a remote area and as such, they would have to employ security 24/7 to prevent things from disappearing but that obviously wouldn't be feasible.
there was someone living there in a trailer for a long time "guarding" it.
Yep and we knew he'd be gone Christmas Day and that's when we took our tour. LOL
@@jbenziggy Do you have footage of that tour you can post?
Just the elements alone would have probably brought most of them down by now anyway. Most of the buildings were mainly set pieces and not built for very long term use anyway. That's how almost all movie sets are made, very cheap and can look the part.
Just up the tracks a mile (east) or so is a home with a private dirt airstrip on it. Several shots of Back to the Future III were filmed on the strip. Also lots of support equipment was stored there. The owners home was used for the stars to change wardrobes and relax too. The owners of the property has several photo albums of the movie being filmed and the stars relaxing.
I've seen a lot of set visit videos and really enjoyed your take on it. Like me we're not nerds, we're movie connoisseurs!
Awesome, thank you!
I am massively into the filmmaking process and I love the Back to the Future movies. Your film was very informative and really interesting. Thank you for making this... the power of RUclips :) Best - Scott UK 🎥
Thank you very much! This growing channel always appreciate the support!
I remember hauling gravel in to build a road up the side of the mountain to move the trucks to film the overhead shot of the town. Also the water tower was used in Petiecoat Juchtion.
Well I never knew they used a model, I always felt a bit sad when I watched the train go off the bridge, thanks for making this vid, very enjoyable 👍
Glad you liked it! Yeah it would have been a tragedy to ruin a good historic train engine for that shot but it looked so real I thought, "What did they do?!!!"
As a huge fan of the trilogy this is fabulous!!
Here's a fun fact, what many don't realize is when they were mining woodcreek during the gold rush (that runs through that area), that's where Grizzly Adams was. he was such a lousy minor that he made his money supplying the camp with meat hunted from the local Stanislaus national/Sierra national Forest just East up the hill in tuolumne county. He Used grizzly bears as pack animals and it was one of his bears that was used for the Ca state flag.
Right in my back yard. Thanks so much for all the movies that were shot there.
Thanks for watching, Brian!
Love this!! I grew up in empire and always wondered where abouts near Jamestown the filmings took place! Thank u!!
Thanks Jeff & Sarah for the Story
My wife worked at an "Antique" store in Jamestown and they were in buying incidentals to fill up the buildings almost every day. Every night after filming a limo would drop Christopher Lloyd off at The Rawhide Saloon in Jamestown and pick him up about closing. By the way, about a mile further up the track is or was the water tank used for the opening scene of Petticoat Junction. And somewhere near there is the location of the bus crash from Another 48 Hours.
Thank you for being the first to show this! I too am surprised no one else has found this location.
Thank you! It is hard to reach and if you're not a local like me you'd be hard pressed to identify the spot. I'm glad though. LOL
@@jbenziggy
Thank you for the great research of the BTTF 3 Movie.
Could it be that the Train Track is next to the CA-108/120 Highway in the Red Hills Area? I havent been able to visit the USA yet so i tried to find it on Google Maps.
kind regards from Germany
@@MrEzkimo yes you are right on the money!
Your connections and history to the filming of these movies was so interesting, and your knowledge is amazing. It's like you have IMDb in your head! Not sure your other half shares the same film enthusiasm, I can empathize! So well done, loved it 👍
Wow, thank you! I do study ahead of time but with age comes knowledge. LOL
Recovering from hip replacement watching all your videos. Your the best thanks
Glad to hear we can entertain you through your healing! How are you doing?
Great job, but I wish you would've faded from one of the scene shots to the way it is today for a before and after.
Thank you for another great episode of HH! Hello Sarah ;-)
Hi Tony!
Good exercise walking on or alongside those tracks and it would be fun and quite adventurous to use a handcart on the tracks. Lots of good movies done there for sure.
My grandma got to meet Christopher Lloyd when they were filming Part 3 there. She even got an autograph from him, which very sadly got lost in an unrelated building fire.
Oh that’s bad to lose his autograph given that it was signed during the filming of a classic. Dang! Thanks for sharing ... and watching our videos!!!
It would be cool if the town was still there, still cool there are artifacts
This woman is great! She keeps him grounded, stopping him from nerding out too bad. 😅
she's a realist
Found your channel after watching a video covering BttF III on Minty Comedic Arts channel and he mentioned the old west set was left intact after filming was completed. Didn't know it burned nor the areas connection to other westerns until your video. Thank you.
Jedi Knight Jairin Aiki thanks! Yeah unfortunately the fire destroyed it all. Too bad because it was all left as is!
I love all the back to the future movies. Thanks
It’s so weird how both hill valleys burned down
What?
@@JustinMacri007 The other movie sets used in the first and second films for the town also burned more than once
@@JustinMacri007 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courthouse_Square
@@76TomD
Insurance scam.
@Michael Wayne I salute you from Brazil!
Beautiful 🙏🏻
Thanks!
A really excellent video and extremely well done. The way it's all put together with scenes from the actual movie is very well done and you can see the locations today. This is one I will save in my bookmarks to watch again and again... Thanks so much for your time, effort, and expert narrating...
That is so cool dude!! Bttf 3 is my favorite out of the trilogy.
The Back To The future is greatest film ever making in this century I watching again and again 100 times I liked that film very adventure
My dad worked in Yosemite at Badger Pass Ski Resort. He was a Maintenance supervisor. After 21 years, MCA corporation, who owned Curry company, told my dad that they were going to open another theme park in Florida and wanted my dad to come out and help build and run Universal Studios, Florida. One of the rides there was Back to the Future. It was the number one virtual reality ride in the world at the time.
great video jeff,it's great that the area is almost the same.At least there's no condo's,house's there.looking forward to the next one.
Jeff, I just joined your page. I truly enjoy your page. Thank you for doing all you do. Joe.
Started watching the channel for the movie locations(I'm wildly obsessed with old movie ranches) but have kept binging the videos for the dynamic of you two guys. Sarah couldn't give a crap and it's delightful.
Awsome....i can hear ZZ TOP playing now....double back again.....
This was the first video of yours that I've watch, since I'm a huge fan of Back to the future series, and was interested on the filming location, thanks to youtube. The bee scare the heck out of me that I almost toss my tablet thinking it was right in front of me!LOL!
Thankyou so much for making this awesome video.😀
That's the Red Hills, BLM land, with a National Guard range. Used to shoot and hunt there all the time when it was still OK to shoot there. Walked every inch of that track from Red Hills down to Waterford, hunting small game, ducks and geese. My dentist chair had a view out into some woods in Twain Harte and, whilst having a wisdom tooth removed, saw Michael J. and his wife walking along. Worked at the Keystone briefly, and my last day in the Sierra was walking past an old LHOTP set up on Dusckwall Mountain on the Murphy Ranch. Man, makes me homesick seeing all this. Gonna watch it again. Thank you.
I'd love to hear what you know about Little House. I know Landon was up there a lot. In fact I met him while he filmed Highway to Heaven. My high school teacher told us of how Landon used his ranch near Jamestown for shooting scenes. Said Melissa Gilbert was cute as a bug!
@@jbenziggy Oh,I don't really know a lot about it. I worked in the woods, and much of that work was up the Cottonwood Road out of Tuolumne City at Cherry Lake (walked a heckuva lot of the Westside Railway, too), on both private and public timber lands. Duckwall Mountain and the Murphy Ranch were frequent filming spots and we'd come across their caravans on the road now and then. You'd see cast members wandering around Sonora sometimes. Victor French spotted me ten bucks to sit in on a poker with him at the County Jail Saloon. Met Michael, too, briefly, and they were all really nice, genuine folks. The last job I had in '91, the day before I left CA for good, I was hiking out onto the Cottonwood and came across an old cabin set with, you guessed it, those very same fake brick works on the interior, for a fireplace. That structure in the Red Hills for BTTF3 background, looks like a mine entrance with a sluice kinda, was a LHOTP set. We used to love to play cowboys and Indians in the Red Hills when we were kids 'cuz it looked so much like the movies, with no idea of all the filming going on there. Warren Haack's "Muerte en la Sierra" was filmed in the Red Hills and Mother Lode, too, as is only right as it was about Jouquin Murrieta (we were all friends in that one, had a ball. I'm riding the red roan Appaloosa). I was an extra in a Don Johnson western TV pilot shot in Columbia. It's how I took my handle...I'm the blond guy on the sorrel horse with a bowler hat...Blond Bowler.
@@jbenziggy Post Script: Just talked to my son who still lives in Sonora. For years he worked for an old boy in Soulsbyville who had a little sawmill and cut rough lumber to order. He passed away a couple years ago, but my son reminded me that he cut all the lumber for the BTTF3 set. Had about six months work out of it. Just thinking that piece of wood you found might very well have been handled by our old friend Bob. RIP, Bob. Your M1 is safe. I imagine he also did some work for LHOTP, as he was actively milling at that time, as I remember.
I drove by there many times at night over the summer that BTTF 3 was filming....the whole area was lit up.....,there were a lot of night time scenes. It broke my heart in '96 when the set burned down. Good episode! (Sarah cracks me up!)
Thanks, Laura! I'll tell Sarah if she doesn't read this first!
Thank you for sharing this footage with us.
Speaking of Handcars you guys should go check out the filming location for Blazing Saddles.
Definitely a Great Job!
Best BTTF 3 Location Video I Have Seen So Far!
Epic Places thank you! Yeah I noticed nobody had done one so that’s where being local has it’s benefits!
Great episode! this trilogy is what I grew up on! They filmed this movie when i was born so it is quite special for me
you ever look for some of the locations that they filmed the old Combat! tv series around SoCal? would be real cool to see then and now
I’ve always wondered what the filming location looks like now as well as the train tracks, thanks for doing this, great video! :)
Thinking of travelling to this site all the way from England! Great vidoe but wondered are we allowed to actually visit the site?
If it’s just off the road like this in a rural area it’s usually fine here.
Stumbled across your channel, and I'm totally hooked on it. I like how you fill it with interesting facts about the movies filmed in the area, very informative, well done.
Thanks and welcome to our channel! We’re happy you found us! And we appreciate you letting us know you like what you see!👌🏼👍🏼
Back To The Future movies were a blast to watch, so Sad for Michael J Fox 💞🙏
i never notice they were unloading the clock from the train 11:56
The Movies are Full with easter eggs
Enjoyed! Thanks for posting!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video, I haven’t seen any other RUclips videos on this location.
This is just awesome 😊❤
Thank you so much for this😊❤
I love Back to the future ❤
Thank you very much! This growing channel always appreciates the support!
Being into Genealogy, having the ability to go back in time like this would be the opportunity of a lifetime! Imagine meeting and chatting w/your 2nd or 3rd gr- Grandfather and his family!
@PhreshFunk Family history.
I absolutely loved these movies as a kid growing up. They were so amazing magic.. I always thought this was a real train going over a cliff I had no idea it was a model.. it fed me. Thanks for making the video…
Great video, it is too bad that everything burned down. It would be cool too see after all these years and makes you wonder how many more movies could of been made there in the past 30 years. I'd enjoy a day out there with a metal detector and see what I could find, besides a bunch of nails.
Sarah is a good woman you've got there. Don't let her go. Watching the two of you explore, I dearly miss my departed exploring buddy, who was my wife. We visited the Railtown 1897 Historic Park a couple times, and explored the roundhouse and the water tower and depot areas, where so many of the Little House on the Prairie episodes we loved were filmed, but sadly we never got around to riding the train together.
My favorite interaction between the two of you in the video... You: "Look! It's brown!" Sarah: "Look, it's brown ..." (sarcasm)
Awww thank you very much. I love your comments about Sarah. She is great for me. Sorry for your loss though. How long has it been?
Breaks my heart that the set burned down.
Mine too!
Even if it hadn't burned down there wouldn't be much left of it anyway because by now people would have picked it apart taking this & that for "memorabilia".
yeah, you can still go visit the old West set of Nickelodeon's "Hey Dude", but the BTTF3 set is gone, how lucky are we 😂
@@ComputerLearning0 Sadly, you are 'spot on' correct -- the depths of humanity would have it unrecognizable by a couple years' time. It would take the state of CA to fund 24/7 security to ensure its preservation -- like the state does with Bodie, a real ghost town with tons of history.
Love this. I love seeing the old movie scenes.
Thanks so much for watching and commenting! We hope you will subscribe!
You found the horseshoe that Mad Dog lost.
Great research!. Love BTTF trilogy. Regards from Uruguay !
Hi Pablo! Thanks for watching!
Another great vlog
That tiny little piece of wood is apart of back to future and bet millions of fans would love to have that in their collections.
Thanks. I am positive that it was used in the set being painted brown and all out in the middle of nowhere!
Great episode! I really enjoy the movie locations you and Sarah visit. Did you get a new camera? The video seemed really crisp/high def. Thanks for sharing
KC Gunkerstein It could be that you weren’t watching our prior videos at the highest setting for performance. A lot of people probably don’t know that they can change the quality rate at which they watch it. But having said that since August I’ve been using the GoPro 7 which has better image stabilization. Thank you for your compliments. We appreciate you as a viewer!
I love these historical film locations. Thanks for this.
Good job, buddy. Great commentary and adventure. Thank you 😊
Check the video at 1:46 and look at the cloud in the top-right corner of the screen, just above the trees. That cloud resembles the hat Doc Brown wore in BTTF3! Apparently the Doc is still there in spirit. 😁
I'm not seeing it. LOL
I see it. The outline of the hat is to the far upper-right; like a ‘cut-out’.
Awesome video thank you for all your hard work in compiling it and what a shame the place burnt down
Be sure to check out my video coming out tomorrow morning about the Back to the Future III event that was held in Columbia this past weekend. It’s going to be our longest and best video in my opinion!
@@jbenziggy sounds awesome I will definitely check it out all notifications are on
guys thanks to share this with us, amazing walk around where the movie has been shot, I wish to be there. The trilogy is a part of my childhood.
Very happy to hear that you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for sending us those words of affirmation!
Clint Eastwood nails haha!. Always hilarious banter between you two, gotta love Sarah, she'll keep you on your toes. 17:17
😁
That’s a historic area! Should be protected from future development! Sarah doesn’t realize how lucky she is!
Exactly 😂
Thanks Jeff for taking us places we can't seem to find,those wonderful out of the way places you find for us. There were train rides but only a mile out on those same tracks during the very last Western Film Fest in James town.That last film fest was a doozy. Actors from Little House", Dukes of Hazzard", "Norhern Exposure" were there.. The funniest actor there by far was James(Jimmy)Best who played the part of the sheriff in Dukes of Hazzard. He spoke in the same vocal jargon as he did in the Dukes and a crowd of 20 or more followed him around most of the day, laughing. Thanks for those memories. Jim&Angie
Frustrating that this stuff seems to always get burned and destroyed!
I second Sarah's wish to hop on a handcar, placed on the rails, pump that thing down and up to go for a leisurely, invigorating ride up and down the tracks! Fun.
Thanks for posting, Jeff and Sarah. BTW, kudos to your post production individual who locates clips from "The Apple Dumpling Gang," "Bad Girls" + "Little House on the Prairie" publicity photos pertinent to the video and for the assemblage of the dozens of brief, relevant, nostalgic "BTTF3" clips/scenes that add so much to "History Hunters."
How interesting to hear it's Michael J. Fox's apparent fondness for westerns that initiated this large construction project in wide open spaces. Notice how much more "open" this "BTTF 3" set looks on screen compared to the one we saw last year in "Once Upon a Time . . . In Hollywood" for the "Lancer" filming pilot scenes. That one was hindered by being constructed within the confines of the little that remains of Universal Studios' western set and its appearance feels claustrophobic; the buildings on one side of the street are much too close to the opposite side. There's no "vista."
Jeff, your "history" from that long ago Christmas visit / trespassing and your enthusiastic, subsequent research and detailed descriptions and analysis add to and make an enjoyable viewing experience.
I think of the WONDERFUL, great CA state park, Bodie (i.e., the ghost town, the PROTECTED ghost town), and how its designation as gov't property status and accompanying 24/7 rangers and security have put off the inevitable acts of thievery, vandalism and arson. Had Hill Valley not been nuked in the '90s inferno, keeping it "as is" from its glorious movie appearance would require full time security details. The town of Jamestown or the state of CA would have to do some serious debating on whether they could fund the significant liability insurance premium(s), upkeep, preservation and full-time security personnel.
I was disappointed to discover the state's tourist railroad set-up, Railtown 1897, which has good static displays, the roundhouse, depot, rolling stock, "Petticoat Junction" water tank / tower and too-short train rides on a couple miles of track near the roundhouse (which I toured and rode in 2014) doesn't offer the public train rides on this scenic, historic track we see displayed over and over in your video and the relevant clips from movies. THAT would go over well, BIG time, $$$$, because nostalgia of all the movie and television tie-ins. IMO.
Finally, I'll offer that the nearby, closest town of Jamestown is a nice spot to be a tourist. . . . Well, I've overstayed my welcome on this thread. "All Aboard!!"
I thought they crashed a real train. Glad they didn’t.
I honestly thought that was a train they made for the movie. I had no idea it was a miniature
Well the miniature was a train made for the movie
The miniature one was used for a simple reason Robert Zemeckis says its impossible to throw a full speed steam engine off a cliff