Exploring District 12: Life and Lit

I met a couple of friends for an un-birthday trip to The Cheesecake Factory a few weeks ago. Yes, I live two hours away from the closest one. So, yes, I traveled two hours for cheesecake. Sometimes, you just need a good cheesecake.

Anyway, on the way back to my car, the friend who was driving took us by the place where the District 12 village scenes were filmed for The Hunger Games. She and I went to see the movie together so it was fun to poke around as she reminded me, “This is the bakery, this was Katniss’s house, this is the dam she runs across at the beginning.” She remembers it better than I do, and she isn’t a reader at all! Our other friend, an avid reader, hasn’t seen the movie or read the trilogy yet, but hopefully we convinced her to give it a try. She’s just wary of all the hype. “Sometimes the hype’s there for a reason!” I told her. She’s read Twilight and Harry Potter, so she’ll get to The Hunger Games eventually, I’m sure.

This location is actually an old mill town.  I’m not clear on what kind of mill it was.  These are historic buildings that the film crew used, they are not sets that were built and made to look old.

Anyway, here are the pictures I took. I only had my phone with me so they aren’t the greatest, but I thought I’d share them anyway.  The place is the Henry River Mill Village, located in Burke County, NC.

The aforementioned dam. There were signs up all over the place saying this was a dangerous location and not to go farther, so this is as close as I got.

Katniss’s living room. My friend said the upstairs scenes were actually filmed in another building.

She also said that graffitti and vandalism have become a problem. See the graffitti above and the vandalism below. I’m sure my readers are well-behaved, but I’ll just say it anyway. Please, be respectful when you visit places like this. Leave them the way that you found them so that other people can enjoy them. Just be happy with your photos and your copy of the movie. If we all start stealing boards and bricks, pretty sure there won’t be anything left for others to see. To be fair, there were several people there with us and they were all politely looking around. This is just a case of a few people trying to spoil things for everyone.

Peeta’s bakery

Do you recognize these places from the movie? I’ve requested it from Netflix this week so I can look at these scenes more closely. I also want to make my husband watch it.

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