BIRDS LANDING, Calif. — Tucked away in the remote hills of Solano County, Birds Landing is a fading town that caught the attention of movie star Clint Eastwood. Honkytonk Man was not his most memorable movie, but when cameras were set up to film Clint Eastwood’s 1982 American musical western comedy, it sure was memorable to the locals when Eastwood's film crew descended on the small town.
“I’ve never seen so much chaos in my life just to make a movie,” said John Benjamin, a long time Birds Landing resident.
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Though chaotic, Benjamin said the rural town was an ideal backdrop for Clint Eastwood's character, Red Stoval, a traveling musician moving through small-town America with his nephew.
“Not many people here,” said Benjamin. “I think just about 13 of us.”
Benjamin remembers a time when Birds Landing wasn’t always small. In the late 1800s, it was a bustling port town founded and named after businessmen John Bird, who built a wharf that attracted schooners full of people working or buying crops from local farmers.
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“Yeah, it was jumping back then. Raised a lot of activity back then. They supposedly had a 300-piece brass band,” said Benjamin.
At its peak, the town had hundreds of residents and workers, and Benjamin described the hotels, warehouses and the old general store which his family ran for many years. In fact, before the store closed, he caught Clint Eastwood talking to his sister on the porch.
“He was right here on front with my sister. I had to see my sister about something. So, I said 'How do you do?' And that was pretty much it, you know. There was no conversation,” said Benjamin.
Unfortunately, a series of fires burned down many of the town's buildings and residents moved away. The surviving structures include the old brothel, which Benjamin now owns and lives in.
Across the street from Benjamin's house are the remnants of Shirley’s Bar. It was an iconic spot owned by a feisty woman in her 90s who allowed bird hunters to serve themselves and toss peanut shells on the floor.
These days wind turbines outnumber the people in Birds Landing. Though secluded and quiet, John Benjamin says Birds Landing is not dead, but he’ll be here till the end.
“I basically stayed here just to watch the place die, because I could see that's what it was doing. It is dying," said Benjamin.
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