I first visited the town of Smith River in search of the locations used to film Return of the Jedi in 2003. At that time, the only information that I had on the locations came from the “Making of Return of the Jedi” novel that was published in 1983.

I was able to meet several local Smith River residents who worked on the film, after placing an ad in the local newspaper. They gave me general directions to the bunker site, including showing me the road that led up into the woods, and a description that the bunker was off of a right hand turn. They described the site as being flat with a bowl shaped hill to one end, that the bunker had been built into.

I ventured into the woods, and soon found that the situation was bleak. I knew that the area had been logged after filming took place, but did not appreciate how destructive the logging process was, and how different the forest would look today. There was no chance of matching up any trees to stills from the film, as the trees were gone. So, my only option was to look for a landscape that matched the description I had. With so much of the forest looking so similar, this was extremely difficult.

During the first trek up, I took the first turn off to the right, and spent several hours exploring down that path. I would later learn that the road I had turned on did not exist in 1982, so I was off on a goose chase.

I returned to Smith River once more in 2005. For this trip, fellow location-hunter Gus Lopez and I had met someone who had plot plans of the bunker area. These showed the roads around the bunker, and we thought they would enable us to find it easily. After staring at satellite imagery for many hours, we found several possible matches for the roads, but nothing definitive. When we got to Smith River, we were able to convince someone who had worked on the film to try to locate the site with us. This trip was also unsuccessful, as the area is very different today to the memories of 23 years prior.



A few years later I was doing further research into aerial photography, and learned that there were now companies offering aerial photos taken throughout the 20th century. There was actually a photo of Smith River available from August 1983, approximately 16 months after production. This photo was very helpful, as it showed the area as it was around the time of production. The 1983 photo revealed a number of roads that no longer existed today, so I assumed the bunker must be at one of those locations. We returned to Smith River in 2008 and scouted several of those areas, again unfortunately unable to find the exact location for filming of the Battle of Endor.


1983 Aerial Image at Left. Modern Aerial Image at Right.

In 2009, I had two more significant breaks in the form of two new maps from the production. One of these maps was a wider plot plan showing the Bunker location as compared to the major roads in the area. This was the major break in the search – a definitive “X marks the spot” map for the Bunker.



I was able to compare this map to the 1983 aerial photo, and plot the exact location within a few hundred feet.


A rough overlay of the production map to the 1983 aerial photo.

We had been roughly in this area on earlier trips, as it is one of the turn offs to the right, but had never been to the exact area.

In 2010, I went back to Smith River with several friends, for the fourth attempt at finding the location. We hiked several hundred feet off of the road through deep forest, and began to explore for the exact spot of the bunker. The location of the bunker is one of the only (relatively) flat spots in those woods. We knew that the bunker faced southwest, and from the maps knew that several hundred feet to the south west of the bunker set piece, was a steep drop off. We also knew that the biggest landmarks would be the large tree stumps on either side of it, and that it was built into a hill. After some time exploring the area, we concluded there was a spot that matched all of these geographical conditions exactly.

The GPS coordinates of this, the exact location of the Endor bunker, are 41.905890, -124.124473.


The coordinates mapped onto an aerial photo, which coincides nicely with the production map.


This production plot plan of the area shows the major tree stumps we were searching for. Stump #3, on the right of the bunker, was very easily identifiable. Stumps #1 and #2 were harder to see as they were buried under 20 years of forest growth, but they were absolutely present as well.

Second growth redwoods were planted when the old growth trees were logged in the mid-80s, and today these trees are quite large in their own right. This makes the area today far more dense than it was during production, and makes it very difficult to photograph. The shots below were taken with a wide angle (10mm) lens, so they are somewhat distorted.


This is a head on view of the hill that the bunker set was built into, compared with a production image. This was the best comparison I could put together, due to the difficulties of photographing the area. Stump #3 can be easily seen on the right of this photograph. Stumps #1 and #2 are present in the left edge of the photo, but are difficult to make out due to the mess of branches and forest growth that cover them.


A video pan, from right to left, of “Bunker Hill.”

The area out in front of the bunker is relatively flat - a rare characteristic on the this mountainside setting.


This video shows the view looking out from the bunker hill, where the battle scenes took place.


In this still from the film, you can clearly see tree #3 to the right hand side of the bunker.


A closer view of that stump today.


This behind the scenes photo shows tree #3 at far right, and trees #1 and #2 (along with the smaller trees around them) on the left.


In this still from the film, you can clearly see tree #2 at the front left of the bunker. The photo on the right was taken during the location recce, and is a nice shot of both trees #1 and #2.


Looking up bunker hill and to the left towards stumps #1 and #2, largely obscured by forest mess.


This photo shows tree stump #1, buried under a mess of forest debris, in the foreground. In the background is a smaller tree stump, which is also visible on the production plot plan.


Just up the hill from stump #2 is stump #1, seen in this photo.


This is the view from stump #1, looking slightly downhill at the buried stump #2.


This video shows the position of stump #3 relative to #s 1 and 2.


And this video offers a closer look at stumps #1 and #2.


The view looking down from the top center of Bunker Hill. Note the density of the secondary growth Redwoods.


The view looking to the right from the top of the hill, towards stumps #1 and #2 (largely obscured by foreground trees in this shot.)


The view looking to the left from the top of the hill, with stump #3 visible on the left side of the image.


Another shot from the bottom of bunker hill looking up. Stump #3 at right.

In addition to the exact spot of the bunker, there are a number of landmarks around the town of Smith River that were important to the production of Jedi. A number of these are noted on a production map showing the town of Smith River.


The Smith River map shows the small cottage that set next to the production entrance gate, as well as the Lilly Grower’s sign across the street.


The cottage still stands today, as does the Lilly Grower’s sign – though it seems to have changed ownership.


Saxton’s tackle shop is described in the Making of ROTJ as the place where location manager Miki Herman met Lenny Fike. It is also marked on the production map.


We found an old sign for “Smith River Outfitters”, which advertises Tackle, at this spot – presumably a subsequent business to Saxton’s Tackle.


The map also shows the warehouse in Smith River used by the production to build and store props such as the large fake redwoods, and the full sized chicken walker.

The Ship Ashore motel is where the key cast and crew stayed during the production. It is only a few miles north of the filming location.



Finally – the Making of ROTJ book describes “Jim’s” as Harrison Ford’s favorite Crescent City eating spot while he stayed in Smith River. The restaurant changed hands several years after the filming, and is today a China Hut Restaurant. We had to stop in for a meal….