The Pierpont Inn
The Pierpont Inn
Sanjon Road, Ventura
A historic boutique hotel in Ventura with 79 rooms and suites, open to guests since 1910. Pictured: East Main Street, downtown Ventura, 2018.
Check rooms
Universal · 2000 · the water was in Hinkley
Erin Brockovich
A utility used chromium 6 in its cooling water near Hinkley from 1952 to 1966. The film was shot in 1999, mostly in Boron and Ventura. Below, the case and the shoot are poured into the same five bottles.
Sources
The case
What the record says
Dated facts from the Lahontan Water Board and the court record as summarised by Wikipedia. None of it comes from the film.
- 1952–66
From 1952 to 1966, PG&E used hexavalent chromium (chromium 6) to control corrosion in cooling tower water at its compressor station, about two miles south-east of Hinkley.
- then
Cooling tower wastewater went to unlined ponds, and some of it percolated into groundwater.
- 1993
In 1993 Erin Brockovich, a legal clerk working for the lawyer Edward L. Masry, investigated an apparent cluster of illnesses in Hinkley.
- 1996
The case settled in 1996 for $333 million, described as the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit in US history.
- 2013
Hinkley had 1,915 people in 2000 and 1,692 in 2010. Its only school closed in June 2013.
Plume to scale
The Water Board says the chromium affects a groundwater area at least eight miles long and two miles wide. Lay a real distance beside it.
Sources
Sampling rack
Pour the case. Pour the shoot.
AFI names five places where the film was shot. Each bottle takes two layers: what happened there in the real story, and what the film did there. A layer with nothing behind it pours dry.
Sources
0 layers poured · 0 pour dry · Bottle 1 of 5
Sample tag · Hinkley
Choose a layer to pour.
Empty. Nothing is on this tag until you pour.
A small desert community north of State Route 58. Stay on public roads and respect residents; the roadside billboard is the landmark.
Sources
The stand-in
Hinkley was the setting. Boron was the set.
The film was shot in 1999 over eleven weeks, five of them in Ventura. Boron, in eastern Kern County, was the main stand-in for Hinkley.
Boron’s own Wikipedia entry says the film was shot in the town and that local residents often served as extras.
The Rio Tinto Borax Mine is California’s largest open-pit mine and the world’s largest borax mine, supplying nearly half of the world’s refined borates. Borates were first reported in 1913 during water-well drilling, and commercial colemanite production began in 1925.
Its exhibits cover how Boron’s early miners and families lived and worked, from a 1930s kitchen and beauty shop to a horse-drawn fire wagon and an ore cart filled with ulexite. The museum’s own page does not mention the film.
The real Erin Brockovich played the waitress in that scene. In the credits Brockovich appears as a waitress named Julia, with Ed Masry as a diner patron seated behind her.
Open daily 10 to 4, free, closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. The photograph shows a siding on the same road.
Sources
Boron museums
Twenty Mule Team Museum
Twenty Mule Team Road, Boron
Free, open daily 10 to 4, with the story of the borax town the film borrowed. Pictured: a siding on Twenty Mule Team Road, 2012.
See the museumCollect
Find the places
The desert places are a drive along State Route 58, and Hinkley is a home town, not an attraction. Powell Library is on the UCLA campus and the diner is on East Main Street in Ventura. The houses on South Emma Avenue are private, and Masry’s office on Sherman Way is named by its street only; neither is pinned.
Sources
Where it is now
7 places you can visit between the Mojave Desert and Los Angeles, plus two private or unpinned places named by their streets.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
Area reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A small desert community north of State Route 58. Stay on public roads and respect residents; the roadside billboard is the landmark.
Area reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working desert town on State Route 58. Streets, the park and the museums are public; homes are not.
Site reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The Borax Visitor Center is the public door. The mine itself is a working industrial site; check opening times before the drive.
Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open daily 10 to 4, free, closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. The photograph shows a siding on the same road.
Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A railway building that houses a museum, beside the Amtrak stop. No source places a scene here; it is the town’s best-known building, shown to stand for Barstow.
A roadside billboard outside Hinkley, photographed in May 2015. It reads: "PG&E Did It, And Always Knew, Since 1952!!" Alison Cassidy · CC BY-SA 4.0 Hinkley, San Bernardino County, California
Hinkley
Hinkley is an unincorporated community in the Mojave Desert, about 14 miles north-west of Barstow and just north of State Route 58.
A small desert community north of State Route 58. Stay on public roads and respect residents; the roadside billboard is the landmark.
Sources
The Welcome to Boron sign on the east side of the town, March 2022. Missvain (Sarah Stierch) · CC BY 4.0 Boron, Kern County, California
Boron
The film was shot in 1999 over eleven weeks, five of them in Ventura. Boron, in eastern Kern County, was the main stand-in for Hinkley.
A working desert town on State Route 58. Streets, the park and the museums are public; homes are not.
Sources
The Rio Tinto Borax Mine at Boron, December 2012. Marcin Wichary · CC BY 2.0 Rio Tinto Borax Mine, Boron
Rio Tinto Borax Mine
The Rio Tinto Borax Mine is California’s largest open-pit mine and the world’s largest borax mine, supplying nearly half of the world’s refined borates.
The Borax Visitor Center is the public door. The mine itself is a working industrial site; check opening times before the drive.
Sources
A railway caboose and hopper car on a siding in Boron, seen from Twenty Mule Team Road, October 2012. Pedro Xing · CC0 26962 Twenty Mule Team Road, Boron
Twenty Mule Team Museum
The Twenty Mule Team Museum is free, open daily 10 to 4, and closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Open daily 10 to 4, free, closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. The photograph shows a siding on the same road.
Sources
Casa del Desierto, the Harvey House in Barstow, September 2012. Paul Hermans · CC BY-SA 3.0 681 North 1st Avenue, Barstow
Casa del Desierto, Barstow
AFI lists Barstow among the municipalities where the film was shot.
A railway building that houses a museum, beside the Amtrak stop. No source places a scene here; it is the town’s best-known building, shown to stand for Barstow.
Sources
Stay
A room on the coast.
A historic Ventura hotel, where five of the eleven weeks were shot.
The Pierpont Inn
The Pierpont Inn
Sanjon Road, Ventura
A historic boutique hotel in Ventura with 79 rooms and suites, open to guests since 1910. Pictured: East Main Street, downtown Ventura, 2018.
Check roomsGo there
Out to the desert, or round the studios.
A free museum in Boron and live results for Los Angeles film location tours.
Boron museums
Twenty Mule Team Museum
Twenty Mule Team Road, Boron
Free, open daily 10 to 4, with the story of the borax town the film borrowed. Pictured: a siding on Twenty Mule Team Road, 2012.
See the museum
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Take it home
The one sheet.
An original poster for the film from our store.
Printed Originals · Printed Originals
Erin Brockovich (2000) — US one sheet
An original 2000 US one sheet, 27 × 40 inches. Rolled, mint.
In stock
View posterDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
The archive
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
9 of 9 places · 10 of 10 stories
Hinkley
Hinkley, San Bernardino County, California
Chromium in the cooling water
PG&E uses chromium 6 in the cooling tower water at its compressor station near Hinkley, and wastewater reaches unlined ponds.
The case
Erin Brockovich investigates an apparent cluster of illnesses in Hinkley in 1993; the case settles in 1996 for $333 million.
Boron
Boron, Kern County, California
Boron plays Hinkley
Boron, in Kern County, is the main stand-in for Hinkley during the 1999 shoot.
Rio Tinto Borax Mine
Rio Tinto Borax Mine, Boron
A borax town
Commercial colemanite production begins at Boron in 1925; the mine becomes the town’s main employer.
Twenty Mule Team Museum
26962 Twenty Mule Team Road, Boron
The town’s own story
The Twenty Mule Team Museum tells how Boron’s miners and families lived.
Casa del Desierto, Barstow
681 North 1st Avenue, Barstow
Barstow on the list
AFI names Barstow among the film’s location municipalities.
Main Street Restaurant & Steakhouse
3159 East Main Street, Ventura
The waitress
The real Erin Brockovich plays the waitress in the diner scene, with Ed Masry behind her.
South Emma Avenue
South Emma Avenue, midtown Ventura
The make-believe house
Erin’s house in the film is a make-believe house on South Emma Avenue, lit by floodlights for night scenes.
Masry’s office, Reseda
Sherman Way, Reseda, Los Angeles
Masry’s office
Two location lists put Ed Masry’s office on Sherman Way in Reseda; the real firm was in Van Nuys.
Powell Library, UCLA
Powell Library, Portola Plaza, Westwood, Los Angeles
The professor
A location list puts the scene where Erin meets a professor at UCLA’s Powell Library.
