Little Idaho Town Transformed For Filming Of Volcanic `Destruction' In Northwest

WALLACE, Idaho - It's easy to get confused pulling into this little mining town.

The signs on the highway identify the place as Wallace, but many of the ones in town make reference to Dante's Peak.

There's Dante's Peak Realty, the Dante's Peak Mining Museum and Dante's Peak High School. Banners tout the "Dante's Peak 10th Annual Pioneer Days."

There is no Dante's Peak in Idaho. But the fictional town's name is the title of a $95 million disaster movie that Universal Pictures is filming here, starring Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton.

The movie - about the destruction of a Pacific Northwest town by a sudden volcanic eruption - is spreading artificial ash and dollars all over the Inland Northwest.

"It's been like living in Disneyland," said resident Mary Lou Hanks.

One grocery store has quadrupled morning doughnut sales. No-vacancy signs are posted at virtually all area inns. As many as 1,000 extras have been hired for some scenes. Lumberyards, car dealers and retail stores are bustling with business from the make-believe disaster, which has called for building demolition, the staged collapse of a freeway ramp and 20 vehicles from Lucky Miner Used Cars destroyed in the chaos of eruption.

The studio estimates a direct financial benefit to Wallace of at least $5 million. Indirect benefits are higher, and most welcome in the depressed Silver Valley.

Grumblers outnumbered

A few folks in this town of 1,100 grumble about movie-related disruptions - street closures, for example. But they're outnumbered.

"Sure there have been some minor inconveniences, but it's minor compared to what we gain from it," said Fritz Mattingly, employee of a wine and gift store.

There have been a few minor inconveniences from the movie-making perspective, as well, said producer Gale Anne Hurd, who counts both "Terminator" movies and "Aliens" among her credits.

Federal Express delivery to Wallace is not available before 10 a.m. or on weekends, for example. And there weren't nearly enough hotel rooms locally for the 350 cast and crew members, who are housed from Wallace to Coeur d'Alene, 40 miles away.

But the overall experience has been positive.

"A lot of the cast and crew have brought up their families," Hurd said. "It's been like a summer vacation, which has really kept the morale of the cast and crew up."

Townspeople have held potluck dinners for the visitors. Stars have been sighted at area shops.

"The cast and crew have been good customers," said Don Hayman, whose wife, Ruth, owns R.C.'s Book Barter. "She's seen both of the main stars."

Wallace, hemmed in by mountains, was chosen for "Dante's Peak" because it has the look of a Pacific Northwest town, Hurd said.

The many old buildings - the entire town is on the National Register of Historic Places - also gave it character.

`Perfect location'

"We were able to find everything the script required," Hurd said recently. "This is a perfect location."

Crews have been here since April, she said. Shooting - now two days ahead of schedule - began June 5 and is to end early next month.

All too soon, say locals who get a kick out of spotting Hamilton and Brosnan, Hollywood's latest James Bond, in their town.

"It will be depressing and a letdown when everybody is gone," said Debbie Mikesell, who owns the Shoshone Funeral Home, made over by film crews into the Shoshone Movie Theater.

It's been a heady change of pace for Wallace, whose claim to fame for decades was quasi-legal prostitution, a sideline that subsided as Silver Valley mines played out and shut down.

For a time, the town was noted for having the only stoplight on Interstate 90, which crosses the country linking Boston and Seattle. But a new stretch of the interstate eliminated the signal a few years ago.

So Wallace is enjoying the glow of the limelight and its close-up glimpse of glamour.

Recently, film-crew members spread biodegradable cellulose, which resembles volcanic ash, around parts of town - reviving memories of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Western Washington, which dumped tons of real ash on Wallace.

Locals who were here then say the relatively tidy fake stuff is nothing like the real thing.

"That, of course, got on rooftops and everything," Mattingly said. "It was a bigger mess and an eerie feeling. It got so dark."

But much of the destruction will be performed in special-effects studios far from Wallace, Hurd said.

"There is no way to have falling ash in this entire area," Hurd said. "For wider shots it will be enhanced with digital ash."

Even the real fake ash is an illusion. It may look like it's 5 feet deep, but it's actually a thin layer laid over wooden forms, Hurd said.