Q. What is it supposed to be on the show? A. A lumber camp. Q. Where is it supposed to be on the show? A. Somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Q. When did we see it on the show? A. In the final Episode 12, of the final Season 8, "Remember the Monsters?". At the end of the finale, Dexter, having thrown Debra's body into the ocean, pilots the Slice of Life into the heart of a raging hurricane, in what appears to be suicide. The remains of his boat are found, and he is presumed dead by both his friends at Miami Metro and by Hannah (who is now with Harrison, living in Argentina). But in this final scene, we see a logging camp, with trucks and heavy machinery moving around piles of logs. There's a forested hillside in the background. The camera cuts to a shot of Dexter, bearded and dressed like a lumberjack, walking through the camp. He enters a shabby-looking house where he has rented a dingy room, sits down at a desk, looks out the window, looks sad and deeply depressed -- and then looks directly into the camera as the scene ends. Q. What is it actually in real life? A. A log yard. Q. Where can I find it in real life? A. Amazingly, they actually went all the way to Oregon to film this brief scene. This scene was shot in the town of Astoria, which is Oregon. To be more precise, it was shot at the log yard on Piers 1 & 3 of the Port of Astoria, where Westerlund Log Handlers load logs onto ships for export to China.

You'll find the log yard at northwest end of Portway Street, next to the Astoria-Megler bridge, which spans the
Columbia River and connects the state of Oregon with the neighboring state of Washington.

The forested hills seen in the scene lie to the east and southeast of the piers, which extend out into the River.

Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?

A.  It's fitting that this final location for the series posed a challenge to find.


First, given the forested hills in the background, and assuming they'd want to shoot locally, I wasted half an hour looking for a lumber mill around Lake Arrowhead or Big Bear.

But then I found an interview with Scott Buck, in which he said they shot the last scene up in Oregon, with Michael C. Hall as the only actor present.

So, I switched my search to Oregon, and started looking at every lumber mill there.


Fortunately, I had two things to go on: the location was clearly next to a large body of water, and there was a hillside filled with trees & homes in the nearby background.

So, I eliminated every lumber mill that wasn't next to a body of water or a forested hill.  That narrowed it own to just two or three in Oregon, one of which was in Astoria.

While Googling for Astoria and lumber, I came across an Oregon location site listing places to film in Oregon.  Checking all of the lumber mills listed on that site, I saw that Astoria looked to be the most likely candidate.

Then something occurred to me.  It's a small town.  People talk.  If a big production like "Dexter" came to town and shot in their lumber mill, surely someone would mention it online.

So I started Googling for "Astoria, Dexter and Filming".  And sure enough, I came up with a Twitter conversation of people in Astoria congratulating themselves on keeping it a secret until the night the finale aired:

Oregon Film ‏@oregonfilm22 Sep

@ZeroCharisma Really. All involved did a great job keeping this little secret-even the residents of Astoria who saw Michael C. Hall in town

Then it was just a matter of mapping it out and pinpointing the exact spot.


All in all, it took me less than an hour to track it down.  A new record, perhaps, for an out-of-state location...