Iconic Stephen King Location Catches Fire
The Timberline Lodge, known by horror fans as the hotel used in Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Shining, caught fire late in the evening of April 18th. The Clackamas Fire District was able to fully contain the fire at the Oregon hotel, limiting the damage to part of the roof and the attic. At this time, no injuries have been reported and an investigation by the U. S. Forest Service is underway to determine the cause.
The Shining Hotel Will Remained Closed
The hotel will remain closed for at least the next several days while the fire’s origins and cause are explored.
A preliminary report revealed that the blaze might have started from embers that escaped the hotel’s main fireplace, although this has not been confirmed by investigators.
For now, Stephen King fans will need to wait to see when the iconic hotel from The Shining will reopen to the public.
A Storied History
The Timberline Lodge has a storied history that predates Stephen King and The Shining.
Designed by renowned architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood, the resort hotel was the result of a Works Progress Administration project.
Completed in 1938, The Timberline Lodge attracts thousands of guests each year to its beautiful spot on the south side of Mount Hood.
Inside And Outside Different In The Film
The four stories and more than 40,000 square feet might have made it a perfect location to recreate Stephen King’s The Shining into a film.
However, the interior shots of Kubrick’s films were created on sound stages at various film studios in England.
The exterior of the Timberline Lodge, however, is prominent in many parts of the film, helping to cement the hotel’s legacy in horror history.
Stephen King’s Nightmares
The Timberline Lodge isn’t the only hotel to be associated with the Stephen King novel, however. When King wrote The Shining, he was basing it in part on a nightmare that he had while staying at the Stanley Hotel in the Rocky Mountains.
The Estes Park, Colorado hotel has an ominous enough look from the outside, and is rumored to have several haunted rooms that make it perfect for a King tale.
Jack Torrence At The Overlook Hotel
The hotel at the center of The Shining is the fictional Overlook Hotel. The Stephen King story follows Jack Torrence and his family as they move into the property so that Jack can work as its winter caretaker.
As snowy roads force the hotel to close during the winter months, Jack, his wife Wendy, and their son Danny are the only ones occupying the Overlook. So it seems.
The Shining Is Terrifying
The Overlook has a horrific past that echoes in its hallways, guestrooms, and ballrooms, unnoticed except for those who have the ability to detect their presence.
It’s revealed that Jack and Wendy’s son Danny has a rare gift that allows him to possess a combination of clairvoyance and telepathy. It leads to the ghostly echoes in The Shining to begin to reveal themselves in a way that only Stephen King could concoct.
Stephen King published The Shining in 1977. It was adapted for the screen and directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1980. In 1997, director Mick Garris remade the film into a television mini-series. A sequel to the film, Doctor Sleep, was released to theaters in 2019 and was based on King’s 2012 novel of the same name.
Sources: Clackamas Fire
