From: hmc6442@ultb.isc.rit.edu (H.M. Chau)
Subject: News from Roslyn, Tourism
Originator: hmc6442@ultb
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 02:32:57 GMT

N.K.C. Tribune
Cle Elum, WA
Thurs, September 3, 1992

"On location: Behold -- The tourist" [Reproduced here in part]

  Behold! The Tourists!! They're everywhere.  And they come from everywhere!
  Roslyn had its fair share of tourists before the onset of _Northern
Exposure_.  It is an historic town which is included in the National Register
of Historic Places...
  But Roslyn wasn't really credited for being a tourist town until Universal
Studios agreed to using it for its location scenes in _Northern Exposure_.
It had been a quaint little town in the foothills of the Cascades "that had
some interesting things to see--the buildings, the cemeteries--" and "the
people are really nice."
  None of that has changed.
  What has changed is that, without doing anything, Roslyn has become one
of the hottest tourist attractions in the state.
  ...
  "Roslyn has no motels and fewer restaurants..."
  "One man, from New Jersey, wanted to know if the moose would be walking
down the street when he got here,"  Moen laughed.  "I told him, 'No, the
moose is a wild animal.' I said, 'I can promise you there will be a camel on
the wall, but I can't promise you a moose'."
  Moen said the State Tourism office is also dealing with the discovery of
Roslyn as an important part of the state.  People contacting them want to 
know where Roslyn is and how to get there, and about the show.  Since the
show is shown in some countries overseas, the state is helping to plan
excursions for groups of tourists.
  "They're bringin a Dutch group in October," Moen said, "and a German
group is also coming in the fall."
  ...
  "Ninety percent of the calls we receive at city hall, and even the ones
we answer for the police department, are tourist related," Heide states.
"We get about 20 per day."
  The city is reimbursed by Pipeline Productions for the time they must
take away from their routine jobs and become travel information officers.
  "Before they came, if we answered the police phone once a month it was
something.  But now, even with three full-time officers, we're taking
10-15 calls a day.  They really need an answering machine.  In fact, if
we had one in this office, we could put the filming schedule on the tape
and save ourselves a lot of time, because mostly, people want to know
when they are filming."
  The Tourist $$$
  With the label of tourism come the bottom line--dollars!
  ...
  There is no question money has come into the town because of the payroll
for local extras, rental fees for machinery, space, etc., but the tourists
are bringing a lot with them, too, and leaving a whole lot of it behind.
  ...
  ...toutists signed the museum guest book at the rate of three or four
thousand a year before _Northern Exposure_... Tuesday morning figures
totaled 19,436--plus the twenty or so who came in during our brief
interview.  Those figures only reflect the past eight months.
  "And everyone who comes to town doesn't stop here..."
  ...
  A tourist from British Columbia, caught taking a courtesy picture of
another tourist, was amazed to learn that the city of Roslyn was not part of
a series of studio sets, but that it actually looks the way it does--and has--
since about the 1930s.  He found it difficult to believe that the newest
building in the business district--the Roslyn Brewing Co.--is not one of
the oldest buildings, it just looks that way.  He and hist wife were fascinated
to find that, as Mary put it, "When they (the production people) go home,
you'd never know they had been here."
  But you know the tourists have been here.  It seems like they never leave.
At 11 o'clock at night, during the middle of the week, one still can't find a
place to park on Pennsylvania Avenue, between First and Second Streets.  The
only thing different is that no one is standing on the corner taking a
picture of the camel on the side of the Roslyn Cafe...

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