Dexter: New Blood Filming Locations: Dexter's Cabin

There is a rectangular, stone fire-pit outside the front of the cabin, and a small icehouse out on the frozen lake, next to a hole cut in the ice for ice fishing.

There is also a small greenhouse or garden shed near the house (which Dexter uses as a kill-room when he murders Matt Caldwell). and a farm animal pen on the other side..

It's here that Dexter starts out, sharing his new life with the imaginary Debra, And it's here where he brings his son Harrison back home, after convincing him to come back from the bus station.

And ironically, this cabin serves as home base in the police search for the missing Matt Caldwell, with the police not suspecting that Dexter buried the man's body right beneath that aforementioned fire-pit.

We see the cabin many times over the course of the series, the final time in Episode 9, when it is on fire, burning to the ground after having been torched by Kurt Caldwell.

Q. What is it actually in real life?

A. An actual log cabin, which was built especially for the production, but was torn down at the end of filming.

Q. Where can I find it in real life?

A. Dexter's cabin was built on the western banks of Lake Wampanoag, just north of a place named Camp Collier, in Gardner, Massachusetts (although the area sometimes maps as Ashburnham, MA).

Despite the fact that the cabin is supposed to be near downtown Iron Lake, the actual location in Gardner is 50 miles east of Shelburne Falls, Mass., where they filmed those Iron Lake scenes.

Gardner is located in upper mid-Massachusetts, in the County of Worcester, and just eight miles from the northern border with the state of New Hampshire. The town is about 50 miles northwest of Boston, and about 50 miles northeast of Springfield, Mass.

Lake Wampanoag is a beautiful 228-acre lake, bisected by the border of Gardner and Ashburnham (with Gardner claiming the south half and .Ashburnham the north half).

Camp Collier is a wooded natural area, dotted with bluish green log cabins,,comprising 585 acres. The Camp appears to have been built as a Boy Scout camp called the David. R. Collier Scout Reservation. But while it is still owned by a Boy Scouts trust, it appears to be mostly inactive today.

But the area is open to the public.

The site of Dexter's cabin lies about a quarter of a mile North of Camp Collier, off the gravel Camp Collier Road.

As of November 2021, all that remains now are a few traces that let you know that the cabin had been there, including that iconic rectangular stone fire-pit (where Dexter buried Matt's remains, and that always seemed to be burning, on the show) just outside Dexter's cabin.

If you've watched the show, you know the cabin overlooked a frozen lake, where Dexter occasionally ice-fished. That was Lake Wampanoag, which, while frozen in the winter, is a beautiful blue lake in the warmer months.

They also filmed the scene of Dexter running through the woods, in pursuit of that white deer, in the same general area. (although the shots featuring the CGI deer were filmed in another location).

[ While the exteriors of the cabin and the surrounding features were filmed at this location, the interiors of the Dexter's cabin were mostly shot 25 miles away, on a set built in a soundstage at New England Studios, in Devens, Massachusetts. There was one exception: the first conversation In the cabinbetween Harrison & Dexte was reportedly shot inside actual cabin, because the studio set wasn't ready yet. ]

There is no Google StreetView available in the area, And I live out in California. But fortunately my friend Ron B., who lives near Boston, traveled to the area, tracked down the cabin site, and shot the great photos you see below. ( Thanks Ron! )

I've tried to match the photos with screencaps from the show to give a good idea of what the cabin site looks like as of November 2021.

Bear in mind that the cabin was torn down once filming was over, so you won't see it in the photos below. But what you will see is the only remaining remnant from that New Blood set, which is the fire-pit that was always burning outside of Dexter's cabin. You'll see that same fire-pit in three of Ron's photos below, so you can use it to appraise the relative position of the cabin and other features of the former set:

Ron's photo below shows the view Dexter would see looking out from his porch,
towards the fire-pit and the lake beyond (the camera is looking east):

Ron's photo below shows a similar view to the screencap above,
looking west from the fire-pit towards Dexter's cabin:

Ron's photo below is looking east/southeast from the animal pen (above)
to the parking area where you can see Dexter's truck (above):

Ron's photo below shows the view Dexter would have looking out (northeast) at the
ice house on the frozen lake, except that the lake is no longer frozen:

Ron's photo below shows the right (north) side of the house where the garden shed was:
(Note the white circles on one tall tree, which can be seen at the far right of the screen shot above.)

Ron's photo below shows the view looking east from the fire-pit to the lake: