If you’ve seen the Disney+ documentary “Timeless Heroes – Indiana Jones And Harrison Ford,” you may have noticed a shot of a bunch of Indiana Jones fans/cosplayers posing in front of the infamous Yoda water fountain at Lucasfilm Headquarters.
Those fans are part of the group “California Jones” a California-based Indiana Jones fan club consisting of cosplayers, artists and fans dedicated to cinema’s greatest archaeologist and adventurer.
Last year, in celebration of the release of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, a number of them went on a “Fortune and Glory Tour” — a bus tour that visited all the filming locations for the original Indiana Jones trilogy located in the San Francisco Bay Area, the home of George Lucas and his empire Lucasfilm.
I was actually invited to attend this incredible experience last year but, unfortunately, due to scheduling issues, I was unable to attend. But after a lot of success, another Fortune and Glory Tour, labeled “Raiders Of The Golden State: Fortune And Glory Tour” was scheduled this year for May 17th-May 19th. There was no way I was going to miss out this year.
With Dial Of Destiny still fresh on many people’s minds, two big Indiana Jones anniversaries this year (Temple Of Doom celebrating its 40th Anniversary and Last Crusade celebrating its 35th) and with a new video game on the horizon (Indiana Jones And The Great Circle scheduled to come out in December) there’s no telling if another year going forward will have Indiana Jones this much on the mind of the public consciousness. So this could very well be a once in a lifetime adventure.
Day 1 started as a meetup at San Francisco in Treasure Island Administration Building, which was the filming location for Berlin Airport in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Many of us took photos and even cracked our whips in a grassy area that was nearby, but the highlight of this spot was one fan brought a motorcycle that was used in Last Crusade. I was thrilled to seize this moment to take a photo with “Dad”. One member happened to have a motorcycle license and gave us fellow Indy fans an opportunity to ride with him in the Henry Jones Sr. (Sean Connery) seat! It was such a thrilling way to start an incredible weekend.
After going inside Treasure Island briefly and grabbing a shot, we boarded the bus and headed to Chinatown. Specifically we headed for Ross Street which stood in for Shanghai 1935 in several shots of the chase scene in Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom. We visited the Fortune Cookie Factory (“Feel like I step on fortune cookie!”) and saw them make fortune cookies, the group was even handed some special custom made cookies with selected Indiana Jones quotes as fortunes!
After exploring Chinatown for photos, eating and looking around we boarded back on the bus for what was, for my money, the highlight of the entire trip. Thanks to some special connections the group had made to Lucasfilm, we were fortunate to get invited to Lucasfilm Headquarters! Once I saw the iconic Yoda Water Fountain I started getting chills as I couldn’t believe I was really there in person!
Now, Lucasfilm is not typically ever open to the public. Aside from some members of the press on special events, outsiders don’t manage to get in often, so this was a thrilling once in a lifetime experience that we were invited to get a special tour of Lucasfilm!
We got some footage pics/video of the main office which included a statue dedicated to King Kong special effects artist Willis H. O’Brien. After the office, we were told that video wasn’t allowed and that only still pictures were allowed. Once told that, we were given a special tour of the entire building which included props not just from every Star Wars project over the decades, not just from all five Indiana Jones movies (which there were plenty) but also of many of the movies “Industrial Light and Magic” has worked on over the years, including E.T. The Extraterrestrial, Back To The Future, The Rocketeer, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Jurassic Park, The Mummy, and Pirates Of The Caribbean just to name a few. I was particularly thrilled to get a picture with the props from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, particularly a picture with steamrolled Judge Doom, which was once reported on social media as hanging next to the bathroom. He’s since been moved next to some other props from the movie. This lifelong movie buff couldn’t get enough of the place. We even had an opportunity to shop at the company store, which I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to buy a limited “Marshall College” shirt which was only sold here.
To top it off, the group was even handed a free Indiana Jones Marvel comic from their archives and a choice between a giant Temple Of Doom poster or a smaller Last Crusade Pepsi commercial (I chose TOD).
And finally after a group photo of the Yoda fountain, we visited San Francisco City Hall, which was the filming location of the end of Raiders Of The Lost Ark where Indy and Marion walk down the the steps of Washington D.C. We took a ton of photos in costume, and got plenty memorable reactions from couples getting married and 16 year olds celebrating their Quinceanera.
After we headed back to the parking lot near Treasure Island, we were given a ton of goodies from shirts to posters. It was such an incredible trip and it was only Day 1!
Day 2, May 18th, we headed over to San Anselmo, a small town in Marin County, up north of San Francisco. We met up at Imagination Park where in 2013 Lucas donated statues of Yoda and Indiana Jones that were sculpted by Lucasfilm employee Lawrence Noble.
After getting photo-ops with the statue and cracking whips at the park, we explored a number of the buildings and shops from San Anselmo. This included a toy shop which had a prop from Raiders Of the Lost Ark. A local resident even noticed my costume and pointed out the location for the original Lucasfilm building where Star Wars and Indiana Jones were first written. And the parking lot where Harrison Ford first practiced cracking a whip.
At about 11 we boarded a bus and drove 16 miles to Mt. Tamalpais Hiking Trail. This was where the motorcycle chase from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was shot. We hiked to take a photo op of the split road that could be seen in the movie. Another hiker and I even split up from the group for a little while to hike the entire trailer where the jousting and most of the chase took place.
After the hike, the group met up at the house that was used as Indiana Jones’ house in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The owner, who appreciated the attention the film has brought to her house enough to display an idol on the front of the house, was really nice, letting us take as many pictures as we wanted and answer questions we had.
After the group photo op, we concluded the day going to Hangar 9, which was used as Nang Tao Airport, where Art Webber (Dan Aykroyd) helps Indy, WIlie and Short Round board on Lao Che’s plane. Two of our cosplayers even dressed as Indy in his white tuxedo and as Webber for a memorable photo op. After a group photo we headed back to Imagination Park to conclude Day 2 of the tour.
Finally on Sunday, May 19th, Day 3, we visited the Oakland Aviation Museum. This is a really cool museum with a number of great exhibits for both children and adults. But the highligh,t of course, was the water plane that was used for the opening of Raiders Of The Lost Ark where Indy boards for his trip to Nepal to reunited with his long lost love Marion, all to be followed by Toht.
Being inside the same plane as Harrison Ford was really cool. It made me wish water planes like this were still regularly being used. After a small group of 6 of us at a time took a tour, we eventually got a big group photo op in front of a plane. We then proceeded to lunch and a raffle, where the prizes were various art and props created by Indiana Jones fans all over the world. I happened to win a couple of pictures created by artists Jacqueline LaCombe and Andrew Newall. I even got a mold of the Temple Of Doom gun.
While Lucasfilm is not a public place and is not typically open for tours, many of the places I did visit are open to the public. So, if you’re an Indiana Jones fan who has always wanted to visit the filming locations, adventure is out there in the San Francisco Bay area waiting for you!
Overall it was one of the most fun and amazing weekends of my life. Special thanks to our organizer Eugene Shin for putting so much hard work into creating this incredible event. You can follow his art at LostDeltaOutpost on Instagram and Etsy.
You can also follow the cosplay group California Jones on Instagram to be on the update for the next California-based Indiana Jones meet up.
