Eldora, Iowa: Twister Movie House

Well, the house is still there, but wow...you wouldn't think that this was once the site of a multi-million dollar movie set. Set your expectations very low and you won't be disappointed. No B & B, no tours, phone number doesn't work, RV Park? -- barely, no dirt track, boards on front door and some lower level windows. No sign of life.

With all of that being said, I'm still glad I made the quick stop.

Beautiful 1886 Victorian home seen in the last 10 minutes of the "Twister" movie. "Look, it didn't take the house." You know the one -- the family climbs out of the cellar in front of it.

From the last post to this one has been about a year. Anything you read about any improvements, well it was money wasted. The brush is over 6 feet in some spots, 3 feet in others, you can't see the bottom of the house. Two big mobile homes behind the house, with overgrown brush around it, lots of gas tanks around -- it was just so awful. I feel so sorry for Mr. Follet, who was the original builder/owner.

The "Twister" movie house is no longer an attraction. We have friends in Eldora and went there for their daughter's graduation. We decided to go see the "Twister" house. They said it was easy to find from a sign off the main Route 175 road. We drove by several times and didn't see a sign. We got directions and set out again with our friends in tow this time.

Got to the road, then a couple of miles down to the house. AARGH! A couple of run down trailers on the property, two loose big dogs, a Chicago Cubs flag on the flagpole, and the RV area overgrown! It looks like someone bought the place and may be fixing it up to live there (they had new shingles on the main roof and others in the process of being installed on the porch roof). The house itself appears to be gutted out. It still looks the same basically from the movie in structure, but it doesn't appear as if the people want anything to do with the "Twister" theme, and according to our friends probably just bought the house for a bargain to live in.

Any signs that it was the "Twister" house have been removed (our friends were shocked to see the condition of the property and the fact that all the signs were gone).

Save your time, visit Field of Dreams about and hour and 1/2 from Eldora. Hopefully someone will see the "Twister" house's value in the town's history and do something about it.

I visited this site late summer 2004. At one time they said they had a bed and breakfast and gave tours, but when we were there they no longer gave tours. The house has not been kept up for showing. There was a lady camped there which graciously gave us a tour, but generally they do not do tours any longer since the movie Twister came out a long time ago.

After seeing the tip from Roadside America, I decided on my great midwestern tour to stop in and see the Twister house. It was excellent. Chuck Welsh is the proprietor, and the tour guide. He showed us around the site, the history of the area, his family history, and all of the movie props that were left by Warner Bros. after the movie finished filming. One of the things that the WB staff left was the mechanism that they used to create the "exploding fence" during the end of the movie. (the house is the one featured in the last 10 minutes of the film.) He just opened a stock car racing track and a Karaoke place behind the house. The tour was $2 and was worth every penny.