Visitors to the Ashcroft Museum can experience the magic of filmmaking at a new display that focuses on the many movies, TV shows, and commercials that have been filmed in and around Ashcroft over the years.
The museum opens for the season on Monday, May 6, and at 10 a.m. there will be an unveiling of the new exhibit, which centres around the model of 4th Street that was created for the Twilight Zone episode “A Small Town” in 2020.
Most of the episode was filmed in Ashcroft, and detailed events in Littleton, where things have gone downhill after the sudden death of the town’s popular mayor. Her grieving husband finds a scale model of the town, which is perfect down to the tiniest detail.
He soon finds that whatever he does to the model happens in the town. When he fills in a pothole, its real-life counterpart disappears. When he uproots a dead tree, it disappears in real life. After he paints the outside of the diner on the model, the actual diner suddenly sports a coat of new peach paint.
However, as in many episodes of the show, what can be used for good can also be used for darker purposes. When the former mayor’s would-be successor learns about the model, he has other plans for it, resulting in a battle for control of the seemingly magical item.
The scenes featuring the model — which measures 87 by 45 by 15 inches high, and features working lights — were filmed in North Vancouver, so the actual model was never in Ashcroft during the shoot. However, in February of 2021 Ashcroft CAO Daniela Dyck received an email from the production company, saying that they were disposing of the props from the show and wanted to give the model to the community, which had embraced the filmmakers and made their time there so enjoyable.
The model lived in council chambers at the village office until last year, when it was decided to move it to the museum. The village’s economic development and tourism coordinator, Margaret Moreira, says that the village wanted to get rid of the mine model that was just inside the front door.
“It was old and needed repair, so I mentioned to museum curator Peter Kornikow that we had the Twilight Zone model. We spoke with Daniela about changing it out, and she thought it was a good idea, so we ran with it. We took out the old display, and Peter shifted everything around and cleared a space.”
Moreira was soon on a hunt to find out what movies, TV shows, and commercials had been filmed in and around Ashcroft over the years, and obtain posters for some of them to add to the display. The oldest film she found was Bird on a Wire starring Goldie Hawn and Mel Gibson, which was filmed in the town in 1990.
It was the first of many productions to film in the downtown area; others include An Unfinished Life (2003), Tomato Red (2015), A Dog’s Way Home (2019), the TV miniseries The Stand (2020), and Bullet Proof (2022). There was also the memorable occasion when it became Christmas in September on Railway Avenue and 4th Street for the filming of a Kohl’s department store holiday ad in 2018.
Moreira spread the net a little wider to also include films, TV shows, and car commercials that were filmed within a short distance of Ashcroft over the years. These include Shooter, Afghan Luke, Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, Juggernaut, Red Dawn, The Maze Runner, The A-Team, 2012, Twilight, Cadence, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Tracker, and of course The X-Files, which saw a flying saucer come to Earth across the river from Ashcroft on AIB land.
The plan is to have a map of the area showing what was filmed where, which Moreira hopes will be ready for opening day. She adds that they considered producing a map, but realized that many of the productions had been filmed on private property, and people would need permission to go to the locations.
Work started on the display at the end of last season, and Moreira said that once they got the Twilight Zone model moved she breathed a little easier.
“It was a tight squeeze to get it out of the village office and into the museum. But it gives us a chance to refresh that corner, and show that there’s always something new at the museum.”
All are welcome to attend the official unveiling of the new display on May 6, meet Terri Hadwin of the Thompson-Nicola Film Commission, enjoy coffee and cookies, and learn more about the starring role Ashcroft has played in movies, TV shows, and more over the years.