I left the course of the mighty Columbia River at the town of Hood River, headed south and wound up the hill towards the tallest peak in Oregon, Mt. Hood.

At  11,249 ft in elevation, Mt. Hood is not the tallest peak in the Lower Forty-eight but it stands out like a white beacon from miles around. The peak is adorned, year round, with snow and it’s upper slopes can be skied all year long.

My destination was as lodge built on the slopes of this not-so-dormant volcano at 5,960 ft. It’s name is the Timberline Lodge. But to many movie fans, it will forever be the Overlook Hotel.

The Timberline Lodge was was dedicated September 28, 1937, by President Franklin Roosevelt as part of the Works Progress Administration that provided labour during the Great Depression.

A carved panel about a doorway representing a mountain lion.

Skilled and unskilled artisans where used to carve the ornate interior details, reflection the local flora and fauna of the Cascade Mountains.

The Timberline also provided the exterior location for Kubrick’s 1980 classic The Shining. The lodge portrayed the Overview Hotel which was set in Colorado. The  interiors where all filmed on a constructed set in England. The interior was not based on the real Timberline but on the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite. The film was based on the Stephan King book of the same name and the Timberline asked that the “haunted” room, which in the book is 217, be changed to room another number. In the film room 237 is used (a nonexistent room at the Timberline). Since that time, room 217 has become the most requested room at the Timberline Hotel.

The most requested room.

The Apollo sweater that Danny wore in The Shining. From the Kubrick show at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.