Wakita, OK

One thing I really love is finding film locations of movies, especially my favorite movies. (an older post was dedicated to the Irish-Italian restaraunt in "Return to Me", the only "chick flick" I consider a Top Ten movie). Does anyone remember the movie Twister? Its one of my favorites- a 90's classic! I go to Enid, OK alot for work, and couldn't help but make a 30 mile trip north of Enid to the tiny town of Wakita, OK, the infamous town of Aunt Meg in the movie. Its about 15 miles south of Kansas. A lot of the movie was filmed in town or around the area. The actually have a museum dedicated to the movie I had read about. It figured it would not be hard to miss because there are only like 10 buildings in the downtown. Sure enough, it was on main street. I walked right into the "museum"- actually it was just an old general store. Two older ladies looked suprised to see me, and I noticed when I signed the guest book, I was their only visitor that day. But suprisingly, the book had people from all over the US who had visited. I got the VIP tour of the museum- they were really excited to show me several movie props, including a signed "Twister" pinball machine signed by Bill Paxton. Apparently, he was really popular on set because he was so nice to all dozens of the townspeople. Helen Hunt was not nearly as friendly, according to the ladies. Also, I learned that the town got the directors to use Wakita because they had a bunch of old buildings that needed demolishing, and couldn't afford to do it. So, the studio tore down several of the buildings and left them in piles on main street to make it look like a twister had come through. Anyway, it was a cool side trip in the flat, open plains of western Oklahoma. If you need a personal guide, let me know!!!! (Pictured left is the "Twister" Museum in Wakita).