If you happened to notice a film crew recording 10 paranoid Dutch citizens running around Shevlin Park last summer, an explanation of what they were up to is now available online.

“Wie is de Mol,” the 
No. 1 TV show in the Netherlands, shot its entire 17th season in Oregon last year. The season just finished airing on TV in the Netherlands, and all of the episodes can now be watched with English subtitles on Youtube.

The show, which features 10 contestants trying to figure out the identity of “the mole” while also solving puzzles and completing assigned tasks, is based on a Belgium show that aired in the late ’90s. A U.S. version of the show called “The Mole” aired on ABC in 2001 and continued for five seasons before it was canceled.

A majority of “Wie is de Mol” was filmed in Portland, but the seventh, eighth and ninth episodes feature popular Central Oregon locations. Viewers will be able to see contestants sniffing out the mole, who is trying to stop the team from finishing assignments, at Sparks Lake, Dee Wright Observatory, the Fort Rock Homestead Village Museum and other locations.

Alana Hughson, CEO of the Central Oregon Visitors Association, said Travel Portland, a nonprofit tourism and marketing agency for the city, asked her to suggest unique places to shoot in Central Oregon.

“We gave them a robust list,” she said. “We’re fortunate to have a lot of cool places to put in front of them.”

Hughson said the show was in the area for about a week and brought in about $40,000 to the region in lodging and meeting space costs. She credited Travel Portland and Travel Oregon, the state’s tourism agency, for bringing the show to Oregon in the first place. “Wie is de Mol” had filmed in countries all over the world in previous seasons, but this was the first time it had come to the United States, she said.

Much of the production surrounding “Wie is de Mol” was heavily guarded, Hughson said, because the show’s producers didn’t want word getting back to the Netherlands about how the season progresses or even where it was being filmed. However, some eyewitnesses were able to get a look at what was happening.

Gary Gregor, who helps manage the Fort Rock Homestead Village Museum in Lake County, said the show’s producers contacted him about filming at the museum. He said the show paid the museum $750 to use its facilities for a day, and the crew and contestants — about two dozen people — showed up early one morning in July in a moving van and a few other vehicles.

“They had a giant moving van full of tools, drills and a generator,” he said. “They used all that to build the props and sets they were going to use and they swore us to secrecy. No photographs at all. We weren’t even allowed to let visitors into the museum while they were there.”

Gregor said he watched the production all day, up until the end when one of the contestants was eliminated.

“There were actually some tears,” he said. “There was a big meeting, very private, during which one of the contestants was eliminated. Apparently it was a sad time. They sent him immediately back to Holland.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7829,

awest@bendbulletin.com

A majority of “Wie is de Mol” was filmed in Portland, but the seventh, eighth and ninth episodes feature popular Central Oregon locations. Viewers will be able to see contestants sniffing out the mole, who is trying to stop the team from finishing assignments, at Sparks Lake, Dee Wright Observatory, the Fort Rock Homestead Village Museum and other locations.