BTTF 3 Location?

[mikesumner]

Evening guys (and gals),

I was watching my blu-ray of Part 3 of our favourite trilogy the other day and it occurred to me that although I know that the modern Hill Valley scenes were shot on the back lot at Universal Studios, I've never known where the 1885 set was.

I've tried researching it on the internet and found that it's near a place called Sonora and that when it was built there was a condition that it had to be left after filming had finished.

My question is that now with the advent of Google Earth surely if someone had the co-ordinates or zip code for it it should be possible to find it and have a look.

Can anyone shed some light on this as I can't find anything specific anywhere.

Thanks as always.

[Flex]

Looks like someone else has already tried:
http://www.webalice.it/giulio.russi/bttf...ls_eng.htm

Sadly a line at the top of the page reads:
"Unfortunately, On August 12, 1996, a wildfire raced through the area, destroying the 27 buildings of the set as well as $10-$15,000 in props"

Which explains why you can't find the set on Google Earth

[Flex]

If I would bet on anywhere it would be here:

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=37.8635...120.485771

They mention "Ed Moyle's airstrip" on the page in my previous post, which you can see to the North of the location.
The railway track also snakes round the North side and in general it just seems to be the only place it could be for miles around.

See what you think. Unfortunately you can't use street view, etc to see it from the ground.