Slideshow

Slide Show: The Real Inspirations for 'Wildwood' Illustrations

January 15, 2014

Pittock Mansion ('Wildwood,' p. 97)

Left: Wildwood/South Wood map ('Wildwood,' p. 210). Right: map of Forest Park showing the Zoo, Pittock Mansion, the Audubon Society, etc.

Left: Prue on the eagle flying over the Avian Principality ('Wildwood,' p. 274). Right: the Founder's Trail at the Portland Audubon Society, which served as the inspiration and location for the Principality.

Left: Prue looking towards St. Johns ('Wildwood,' p. 319). Right: the view of the St. Johns bridge from Forest Park.

The St. Johns bridge ('Wildwood,' p. 370)

Left: Map of the Industrial Waste in 'Under Wildwood.' Right: An aerial view of Portland's Industrial Northwest.

Left: Portland's Gas and Coke Building. Right: Unthank Home for Wayward Youth (from 'Under Wildwood,' p. 33).

Left: Shrine Groves (from 'Under Wildwood,' p. 372). Right: Strolling Pond Garden at the Portland Japanese Garden.

'Under Wildwood' Map

Witch's house (from 'Wildwood Imperium'). Right: The Witch's Castle in Forest Park, accessible from the Lower Macleay Park Trail.

In 2010, illustrator Carson Ellis and singer/writer Colin Meloy rolled out a map of Forest Park and began to imagine what it would look like as a fairy tale world of talking animals and epic struggles. The Pittock mansion became a government palace, the crumbling Gas and Coke building became an insidious orphanage, and the zoo a prison. Here, we compare Ellis’s illustrations from The Wildwood Chronicles alongside their real world inspirations.

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