Kip Carter was in the darkroom, developing film for the Democrat-Herald newspaper, when his sister called with the most unusual news.

“Lee Marvin’s in the basement shooting,” she told Kip, who was 15 in that summer of 1968.

He rushed home and found, indeed, that the movie star was practicing archery in the basement.

Stories about Marvin and Clint Eastwood flowed freely on Tuesday evening, Nov. 12, when residents shared memories of when, in the summer of 1968, Hollywood arrived in Baker County to film “Paint Your Wagon.”

The gathering was part of a monthly speaker series at the Baker Heritage Museum.

This one, though, was a bit unique.

Baker City is a stop on the Oregon Film Trail thanks to “Paint Your Wagon,” and on Nov. 12 Jane Ridley captured audio to preserve local memories.

This was the start of a project to collect oral histories of movies filmed in Oregon, said Ridley, who works on marketing communication and special events for the Governor’s Office of Film & TV — Oregon Film Office, for short.

“We’re starting right here tonight, in Baker City,” she said. “This is a brand new part of it.”

More than 600 movies have been filmed in Oregon, and the Oregon Film Office is dedicating signs to mark locations.

The first was placed in 2018 at Gleneden Beach State Recreation Site to honor “Sometimes a Great Notion.”

Baker County has signs dedicated to “Paint Your Wagon” at the Baker Heritage Museum, Geiser Grand Hotel, Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort and Richland.

Each sign has two parts. The top is the movie title, release year and synopsis. The bottom has “Did you know?” information.

Ridley is working with a digital librarian at the University of Oregon to collect oral stories that will be part of the Oregon Film Trail website.

“We need to preserve these stories,” she said. “The communities and people in the communities are the stars. Those are the stories I’m interested in capturing on the trail.”

Stories

Larry Morrison led the presentation on Tuesday by sharing his own story about “Paint Your Wagon.” He was 18, a fresh graduate of Baker High School, and got a job as a laborer with the film’s construction crew.

“If they had to dig a hole, I dug the hole,” he said with a laugh.

Workers boarded a bus every morning at the Oregon Trail Motel.

“I got in this old school bus and headed to the mountains,” he said.

Much of the movie was filmed at East Eagle Creek in the Wallowa Mountains northeast of Baker City. Morrison said there were two main areas — one for No Name City, and one for Tent City. He usually worked at one site while filming happened at the other location.

As he showed photographs, he pointed to a ponderosa pine tree. The artistic director, he said, didn’t like how the tree obscured the mountains so he sent a crew up to pluck the needles.

Throughout his talk, Morrison invited others to share stories.

Jean Johnson, whose dad, Sid, worked on building the movie set, was asked by a crew member what she did for fun on the weekends. When she said she was going to buck hay, he asked if he could try it.

When he left town after filming wrapped up, he gave her his 1953 Cadillac.

“My first car,” she said with a smile.

Tabor Clarke said his family had just moved into a house in the Wingville area, and his dad had turned down offers to rent it to visiting actors.

Until Clint Eastwood knocked on the door.

“About an hour later Dad comes in — kids, pack your bags,” Clarke said.

That wasn’t his only connection to the movie — in 1968, Clarke was 15 and worked at Farmterials. He and Bob Haynes went to the film site four times a week to grow grass.

“We had the most beautiful stand of grass and were so proud it was going to be in the movie,” he said.

Bruce Nichols was 15 that summer, and got hired with the catering service. He got to ride to the site in a helicopter for the first few weeks.

“It looked like all the rivets were going to fall out,” he said.

Carolyn Kulog had just graduated from Baker High, and she worked at Fancy Dan’s Restaurant, now the Oregon Trail Restaurant, where the crew loaded a bus every morning.

“It was an exciting place to be,” she said.

She even got a photo with Eastwood.

“I don’t think I knew who he was before that summer,” she said with a laugh.

Nearly everyone who shared a story said Baker City changed when the cast of 400 arrived.

“That was an exciting summer. Baker was buzzing,” Clarke said.

The budget for “Paint Your Wagon” was $20 million, and it earned $31.6 million at the box office.

The film was nominated for three Academy Awards in 1970 and won one for best music, score of a musical picture, for Nelson Riddle.

“This movie got terrible reviews, but has become a cult classic and we love it,” said Diana Brown, who is a member of the Baker County Museum Commission.

Baker Heritage Museum, which reopens in the spring of 2025, has a model of No Name City in the collection.

Film Trail

An interactive map of the 42 signs can be found at historicoregonfilmtrail.com.

In addition, the Oregon Film Office has partnered with an app called SetJetters, which allows a user to search for a movie and find out where it was filmed. It’s called the “Reel to Real Experience.”

Each Film Trail sign has a QR code to scan for quick access to the SetJetters app and directions to exact scene locations.