The Shawshank Trail

If you’re a cinema fanatic (or a Morgan Freeman/Tim Robbins/Stephen King fanatic) who wants to see nearly every single location featured in The Shawshank Redemption, the Mansfield/Richland County Visitors Bureau has you covered.

In 2008, the Bureau established The Shawshank Trail, a drive-it-yourself tour of every local site that appears in the movie. Maybe you thought the Ohio State Reformatory was the only location used for the classic 1994 prison drama. Well you, friend, are clearly not a true Shawshank Redemption fan. There are a grand total of 14 Shawshank locations in Mansfield, Ashland, and Upper Sandusky, Ohio.

Besides the Reformatory, the trail includes (spoilers) the cabin where Andy’s wife is murdered in the movie’s opening scene, the courthouse where Andy is wrongfully convicted, the bank Andy visits shortly after his escape from Shawshank and the bench in downtown Mansfield where the character Brooks sits feeding birds before his suicide.

Also on the trail are the Renaissance Theatre, where the movie premiered in 1994, and the oak tree where Red finds a present from Andy after he’s released on parole. The Shawshank Trail website warns visitors that the tree is on private property and should be viewed from across the road. It also notes that only half of the tree remains after it was damaged in a 2011 storm.

In the years since its inception, The Shawshank Trail has started hosting events celebrating the movie, including the 20-year Shawshank Redemption reunion in 2013, which attracted actor Bob Gunton (Warden Norton). There’s also the Shawshank Hustle, a 7k race featuring 5 of the Shawshank filming locations to take place in June of 2016.