'Twilight' is blessing, curse for Forks, Wash.

Date published: 11/15/2009

By MARK RAHNER

The Seattle Times

FORKS, Wash.

He hasn't quite worked out a plausible connection between fishing and the fictional "Twilight" series that author Stephenie Meyer set in this little Olympic Peninsula town.

"I've only read two books in my entire life," he said. And "Twilight" wasn't one of them. (Although it's his understanding that heroine Bella's dad was a pretty good fisherman.) So when people ask what fishing has to do with vampires, Lato says, "We're going to float looking for vampires climbin' up the trees just like in the movies."

He exemplifies the major blessing and slight curse "Twilight" has become to this town of 3,000 or so, ambivalent at best toward the material and "Twilighters" who've overrun the place in the last year or so, but anxious to partake of the financial boon they bring.

The next "Twilight" movie comes out Thursday at 12:01 a.m. Most other businesses haven't been shy about it either, no matter how tenuous the connection--one restaurant's "Cullen's Clam Chowder" (named after the series' vampire family), a sandwich board trumpeting a pharmacy as "Bella's First Aid Station," an espresso stand's "Twilight Brew."

"It's a huge boon. We couldn't get publicity like this ever, paying for it," said Marcia Bingham, at the Forks Chamber of Commerce--which has a red truck like Bella's parked in front.

With the town's logging industry in a slump, being overrun has been a godsend. For instance, the month of July brought nearly as many visitors--16,000--as the entire previous year.

Are there any drawbacks to all of it?

"You can't drive through town sometimes easily because there are fans taking photographs all along the way and they slow the traffic," Bingham said. "It's a pretty minor price to pay."

Annette Root, owner of "Dazzled by Twilight," a large gift shop devoted entirely to the series, said more than 5,000 people from around the world have taken her $39 Twilight bus tour of the area.

"I think a lot of the ambivalence comes from this being a very small, tight community struggling with the leap from a logging community to a tourist location," she said. "But it's been a very welcome gift."

'PEOPLE ARE UPSET'

Hey "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob" members: Are you counting the minutes until Thursday's 12:01 a.m. "New Moon" release and planning something special--a "Twilight" party or group movie date? We'd like to hear about it. E-mail Laura Hutchison at lhutchison@freelancestar.com.

Follow us on

Date published: 11/15/2009