Fans of Twilight vampire series pump new blood into Forks

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"WE THINK BELLA'S bedroom is upthere," Mike Gurling says, pointing to a second-story window. "Whenyou read the book, this is the perfect image of how you pictureBella's house to be."
Gurling is in the driver's seat of a big blue van hulked outside asimple two-story house in residential Forks. A former OlympicNational Park ranger, he notes for his 12 passengers thecustom-made placard in the roadside bushes. It reads, "Home of theSwans."
That would be Bella and her father, Charlie Swan. Fictionalcharacters — or are they? At the Forks Visitors Center, whereGurling is tour guide and office manager, it's hard to tell thesedays what's fantasy and what's not.
The book is Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight," the first of a widelypopular vampire series primed to fill Harry Potter's shoes in thehearts of young readers, mainly girls. Set in a far corner ofWashington's Olympic Peninsula, theteen-romance-meets-Gothic-horror series continues this Saturdaywith the release of the fourth book, "Breaking Dawn."
Throughout the past year, growing numbers of fans eager to seewhere reality meets their imaginations have been visiting Forksfrom across the country and around the world — Germany,Ireland and Spain. A few months ago, Gurling came up with the ideaof "Twilight Tours" and posted details on the Chamber of CommerceWeb site. Within hours, an Ohio man and his daughter signed up.
In a place ruled by Douglas fir and Sitka spruce, whose logging-eraresidents have reputedly preferred to be left alone, some aretaking to the attention like vampires exposed to sunlight.
"A few people who live there seemed like they were a little bitannoyed. Maybe they like their peaceful town," says MikelBirindelli, a 19-year-old Twilighter from Olympia who visited Forkslast summer.
"Some people feel like, 'Why should we be known for vampires?' "says 20-year resident Linda Wells. " 'We've got a lot of other goodthings here.' But it's good to have a different audience.Middle-school teenage girls are not usually a group that comesout."
Critics can't deny the economic potential. "I shouldn't get down onit," says one local motel cashier, "because we are a tourist townand it's brought us a lot of business, but you would not believehow many people come in here expecting to see a vampire. Or awerewolf. I am not kidding."
Recent decades have not been kind to Forks, once dubbed "TheLogging Capital of the World." The decline of the timber businessspelled job loss and population stagnation throughout the 1980s and1990s, and the city has been slow to pick itself back up.
Fifteen miles from the rain-soaked Pacific Coast, Forks has twomajor traffic lights on one main street sprinkled with loudAmerican cars. The recipient of 10 to 12 feet of rain per year,it's a rugged, dreary place steeped in hardworking, old-schoolways: One day this summer, for example, an old man in a dinerarm-slapped a young apprentice too focused on his veggies andgrumbled: "Eat your steak."
Mayor Nedra Reed has long expressed her hope that tourism mighthelp fill the economic void left by the troubled timber industry.The visitor center, dutifully sited between the timber museum andloggers memorial, offers popular summer logging tours. But thosevisitors focus on nearby attractions such as the Hoh Rain Forest,and provide only seasonal respite.
Then, about five years ago, a thousand miles away in Phoenix, astay-at-home mom looking for a dark place to set a teenage vampirenovel did an Internet search for the rainiest locale in the U.S.The result: the Olympic Peninsula, and a little place called Forks.
THE STRANGERS BEGAN drifting in last summer. Mostly teen girls,flanked by their mothers or fathers or friends, they roam thestreets with cameras drawn. Occasionally, they wear T-shirtsreading "Team Edward" or "Team Jacob," showing whom they're rootingfor in the contest for Bella's affections.
Anything that says "Forks" is fair game. The Forks Coffee Shop.Forks Outfitters, the local department store. The sign that reads,"Welcome to Forks." And especially Forks High School, where Bellais saved from a fatal accident by Edward Cullen, the impossiblygood-looking vampire who becomes her beau.
By spring, Forks Chamber of Commerce Director Marcia Binghamestimated the daily average of Twilighters at 30 to 50 people; bylast week, she guessed it was more like 90. The visitor centeroccasionally fields mail for Bella, and a sign above the receptiondesk reads, "Vampires Thrive in Forks."
The guest book bubbles with zeal from places such as Tucson; DesMoines, Iowa, and Sugar Land, Texas. "A little obsessed!" wrote avisitor from Pocatello, Idaho. From Kirksville, Mo.: "Twilight Fan#1." From Brookings, Ore.: "It's nice to know we're not the onlynerds!"
In response, local businesses have creaked from their offseasoncoffins, aiming for a stake in the craze. Sully's Burgers sold 800"Bella Burgers" in three months, and the Forks Subway added a"Twilight Special" sandwich. Twilight-themed T-shirts read "I WasBitten in Forks, WA" at main-street businesses that, likebookstores across the country, are planning midnight releaseparties for "Breaking Dawn."
Last year, Mayor Reed declared Sept. 13 — Bella's fictionalbirthday — Stephenie Meyer Day, and the city celebrated withcake and a Bella look-alike contest. Gurling hopes to add a bonfireand Native American wolf dance to the event this year; a blooddrive is also possible.