Summit Entertainment
Almost 20 years after the publication of Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight," the small Washington city that serves as a backdrop for the literary sensation is still going through a tourism boom.
However, not all residents of Forks' roughly 3,400-strong population are happy about the attention their hometown is getting, with some locals hitting out at "vampire tourism," The Times of London reported.
When the first "Twilight" book was released in 2005, Forks had just 5,000 visitors, but that figure soared to 66,000 last year, per The Times of London. The number of tourists who checked into the Forks Visitor Information Center reportedly hit 73,000 in 2010.
Leslie Graham, a local resident, told The Times of London that her "kids will never know the quiet little town I grew up in," adding that you "get some odd characters roaming around."
"I saw someone in Sully's Burgers with sharpened teeth. And the local hardware store sells out of flashlights all the time, as people buy them to go hunting vampires in the woods," she said.
She added that she was "not against progress or tourism. But it does make me annoyed that the streets are clogged with cars."
Another resident, Dora Maxfield, said that the presence of out-of-towners in the small community still made her feel uneasy.
"When we see people roaming around there, it's kind of eerie," she said. "I work at the local school — which the Twilight characters 'went to' — and they'd be out there, crying about how much they loved this vampire guy."
"Sometimes they'd try and walk into the school," Maxfield continued. "It's not safe for the kids."
Christina Horsten/Picture Alliance via Getty Images
The "Twilight" book series quickly established itself with readers, and as of 2021, it had sold nearly 160 million copies worldwide, according to Publishers Weekly.
Meanwhile, the movie adaptations starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart were even more popular, grossing almost $3.4 billion worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. (They were actually filmed in Oregon and Canada).
At the height of the "Twilight" hysteria, Forks wasted no time in embracing its new fame, with new "Twilight" tours showing off famous locations from the films.
Some people have even made permanent moves to Forks after being inspired by the series.
Lissy Andros, a fan who moved from Texas to Forks after falling in love with the books, defended the influx of tourists.
"There are absolutely people in town who don't support this, or the tourism," Andros said.
But "there's a misguided view that the town would thrive without it. "We are very fortunate to have this gift. People come to Forks and love it like their own home town," she added.
Meyer chose to set "Twilight" in Forks after searching Google for the place with the highest rainfall levels in the US.
"I pulled up maps of the area and studied them, looking for something small, out of the way, surrounded by forest," she wrote on her blog.
"And there, right where I wanted it to be, was a tiny town called 'Forks.' It couldn't have been more perfect if I had named it myself," she added.
The spot provided the perfect setting for her vampire characters, who mustn't be exposed to sunlight, so they could go about their lives without being detected by humans.
It was while researching the history of the area that Meyer discovered the La Push Native American Reservation, which inspired the characters of the shapeshifting Quileute tribe.
