I have always enjoyed The Goonies. It has everything I want in a fun adventure movie: an old treasure map, secret passages, booby traps, criminals, a pirate ship, and a group of kids who decide that the best response to a hopeless situation is to go looking for One-Eyed Willie’s treasure.
I have seen it enough times that there are no surprises left, but that has never stopped me from enjoying it. Part of the reason is the adventure, but another part is the setting. The town at the beginning of the movie looks as though old stories ought to be hiding there.
That town is Astoria, Oregon.
The filmmakers arrived in 1984 and stayed only a few weeks, but Astoria had already been collecting stories for generations. Its history spans Native communities and fur traders, fishermen, immigrants, fires, shipping, and one of the most famous movie houses in America.
That makes Astoria worth exploring even if the Fratelli family never shows up...
Podcast Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/astoria-oregon-goonies-history/
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