Ewan McGregor and Hailey Anne Nelson in Big Fish
Courtesy of the Everett Collection
One of the houses built as part of the setting for Tim Burton’s 2003 fantasy drama Big Fish has burned down.
Jackson Lake Island, a private island in Elmore County, Alabama that is home to the film’s fictional “Town of Spectre,” announced the structural damage in a Facebook post Monday. The town is not regularly inhabited except for a community of goats and has since served regularly as a tourist attraction
“We lost a home in the town of Specter to a lightning strike tonight,” the post reads. “All the goats were safe under the church. Thank you Millbrook Fire Department.”
On Tuesday it was confirmed that the island was open. “It’s the morning after one of our homes in Specter was lost to fire,” the July 4 post read. “The rest of the city is fine and we will be open every day as usual.”
Specter is the town that Ewan McGregor’s Edward Bloom stumbles upon in an enchanted forest. The “town” built especially for the film consisted of several houses, a church and a catenary from which shoes dangled. When Bloom returns to town years later, he finds that the quaint community has fallen into disrepair.
After filming ended, Specter was abandoned before being turned into a tourist attraction. The now privately owned island, purchased in 2015 by former Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright and retired Judge Lynn Bright, covers approximately 60 acres and is open to the public who camp, picnic, fish, and in the area can do more.
has reached out to the City of Millbrook and its Fire Department for comment.