HENRY RIVER MILL HILL: Where Hunger Games is Being Filmed

Today I am hosting Joyce Hostetter, my friend and co-presenter at writing workshops. I hope you enjoy her post and the corresponding one on her blog.  Joyce, please tell my readers about what's going on in your neck of the woods and welcome to my blog!

Thanks, Carol.  I'm thrilled to be here to talk about one of my favorite spots. 

You know how much I love that Henry River Mill Village in my "neck of the woods" so when I heard that the Hunger Games movie is being filmed there I figured this was the perfect time to blog about it.  (for both our blogs!)

How convenient that the two of us have some pics from our little visit there a few years ago! 

Henry River is a place I drive through on a fall day just to see the way the leaves color the long slow hill and also because it is way more scenic than going home by interstate.

It's the sort of place that would make a great time travel device if I wanted to write that sort of book. It's hard to drive through without getting sucked back into history. It's difficult to go through at all. Because it begs you to stop and look around.

Me at one of the old Henry River Mill homes on a little drive through with Carol.

I've done that a few times - you know - back before I got wiser about obeying No Trespassing Signs and before it felt more risky to me. I mean, hello - a few years ago I heard on the radio that a body had been dumped there.

There is a dam on the river below the mill village.

And lots of ways to get hurt, I'm sure. Once I stood by the tower-like structure that housed the dam's turbine, looked into the window and saw only darkness and heard the water rushing below and my knees went a little weak and my mind went a little crazy imagining that the window sill beneath my elbows could collapse and I could fall into the dark rushing water.

 I haven't gone that close since.  Amazing what a few decades will do for a body's common sense.

 More recently, I've stayed close to the road - where anyone could see and rescue me if something should go wrong.   Carol and I took a little jaunt there a few years back. 

Carol, checking out remnants of the Mill Hill's former life.

There were always boxes of socks overflowing the shacks that once housed mill workers.

More socks!


Lots of houses which I'm sure were also stuffed with stories!

Part of the milling operation.  This building contained machinery powered by the dam behind it. The main mill building is apparently no longer there.

The company store.  For a few years there was even a school in the second floor. You can read more about that at this fabulous site with photos, history, a map, and stories from the Henry River Mill.

Last week, I drove through Henry River after the production company was finished with a day of filming.  You can see a few pics of that at my blog.

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Thanks, Joyce. When my readers go to see Hunger Games, they will be able to say, "I saw that first on Carol Baldwin's blog!"

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