YMCA Camp Erdman

This nondescript YMCA camp on the northern shores of Oahu was the filming location for the legendary Dharma Barracks in the hit television series Lost, which in its heyday was a hugely popular and award-winning show with a cult following and remains revered as one of the greatest TV series of all time.

First appearing in the Lost season three premiere (“A Tale of Two Cities”), what on the surface seems to be a quaint suburban neighborhood is revealed to be the home of the Others, the ominous and mysterious island natives. What film techniques portrayed as full-sized single-family homes in the show are, in reality, small cabins at Camp Erdman.

This distinctive campground with mustard-yellow dwellings was an iconic setting on Lost. The Dharma Initiative, an enigmatic research group that conducted various scientific experiments on the island, made the Barracks their home base. Later, the Dharma Initiative was overtaken by the Others, who commandeered the Barracks for their own use.

The filming location for the fictional Barracks is still an active YMCA camp in real life. But several years after the series finale of Lost, the iconic mustard-yellow cabins were repainted, leaving the camp without the telltale color scheme appearing in the show. Nevertheless, the mystique and nostalgia of this setting from the renowned TV series lives on.