I first visited Vancouver, BC, where Supernatural was filmed, in 2018 for a Supernatural convention. On both that trip and a subsequent one in 2019, I relied on organized filming location tours, as well as Raloria’s SPN Filming Locations blog on LiveJournal, to guide my location hunting adventures. After the second trip, I had the idea to start a blog of my own photos of the locations I visited, side by side with the original screenshots from the show.
That trip I was lucky enough to go on a locations tour led by Supernatural’s long-time locations manager, Russ Hamilton. During that tour, he talked about how sad it was that some of the most memorable locations, like Terminal City Ironworks and Fantasy Garden World, were disappearing as developers bought up the land where they once stood and knocked them down for more profitable real estate. The end of the series had already been announced at that point, and it occurred to me that the locations are one of the most tangible reminders of the show that a fan can experience after it is over. I was suddenly desperate to visit and document as many locations as I could before more of them disappear.
In February 2020, while SPN was filming some of its final episodes, I was back in Vancouver for more locations hunting. I returned from that trip mere days before the world started to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic and for much of the next year and a half I was stuck alone in my NYC apartment. To keep myself sane, I embarked on a rewatch of Supernatural with the intent of documenting locations scene by scene to determine which ones were already known, based on all the existing location resources online, and which were yet to be identified. Then I started making maps of the locations from each episode and in that process began my own work chipping away at the list of unidentified locations.
In the years since I started the project, I’ve been able to add hundreds more locations to my master list, resulting in what I believe to be the most comprehensive fan-created locations list for Supernatural that exists. It’s been a LOT of quality time spent “driving” the streets of Vancouver and the surrounding cities in Google Maps, starring at trees in various parks, and binging through other series filmed in Vancouver looking for leads. I also extended the work to the Supernatural prequel, The Winchesters, which filmed in New Orleans, LA.
It’s a hobby that continues to keep me busy as there are still a couple hundred locations left to find, and one I love sharing with other fans who want to walk in the footsteps of Sam and Dean!
Sam and Dean Were Here 