ABOUT THE TRAIL
A TRAIL UNLIKE ANY OTHER
This isn’t your typical movie tour experience. The Shawshank Trail is truly one of a kind for movie fans. You can start where you want and end where you want because you’re in the drivers seat of this self-guided driving tour! The Trail was made for people who love the movie just as much as you do. It’s as if you stepped right into the movie with each of the 15 filming sites you visit. Make a weekend out of your adventure with your friends and family and grab some food for the road at one of the souvenir sites along the Trail.
Enhance Your Experience
Each of the 15 filming sites has a uniqueness to it that you can’t afford to miss. Check out our Shawshank Videos and Podcasts for not only an overview of what each site has to offer, but you can use them as a guide while you’re on the Trail along with your brochure!
History of the Trail
The Shawshank Trail was created by Destination Mansfield – Richland County in 2008 for you, The Shawshank Redemption fan! As the popularity of the movie grew and visitors from all around the world began asking the location of film sites, we ‘got busy’ with our first Trail brochure. We, along with fellow Trail sites, created the celebrations of the 20-Year Reunion in 2013, the 20th Anniversary in 2014, the 25th Anniversary in 2019 and the upcoming 30th Anniversary August 9-11, 2024. See pictures from past celebrations HERE.
The hope and friendship of The Shawshank Redemption movie lives on . . . through the fans, in these pages and all around the world. And like Andy said to Red, “No good thing ever dies.”
If not for Eve Lapolla, there would have been no Shawshank Redemption
Eve Lapolla was a friend, a force of nature and will be greatly missed (January 29, 1939 – May 31, 2024). Her name is not one most of you will recognize, but she matters in the legend of what has become the #1 movie of all time according to IMDB. Simply put: If not for her, there would have been no Shawshank Redemption filmed at the Ohio State Reformatory (OSR).
Eve ran the Ohio Film Commission in the 1990’s when she met director Frank Darabont at a Location Expo in Santa Monica, CA in February of 1993. He stopped by her booth and told her he was looking for a prison to be the lead character in his movie. Unfortunately, she couldn’t immediately locate the photos of OSR and he moved on. Not to let the opportunity getaway, she tracked him down before he left the convention hall after locating the photos. A few weeks later, Frank landed with a scouting party in Mansfield, Ohio to look at the reformatory and the rest is history.
The filming of the movie saved an aging prison from being torn down and allowed for a local preservation society to be formed, to take possession of it. Over the next three decades, OSR would become an international destination, help build a local tourism industry and bring millions of visitors to Mansfield. The rest of us may have put the pieces together after the filming, but none of it happens without Eve. She mattered. She gave us all that opportunity. That’s a pretty good legacy!
If you have visited the Ohio State Reformatory and the 15 filming sites along the Shawshank Trail, you have Eve to thank. For those who will come to visit, look for photos and memorabilia of hers in the Shawshank Museum inside OSR.
We are grateful Eve was a part of our lives for so many years.
