In The X-Files pilot, Mulder and Scully’s first case is set near the Oregon town of Bellefleur.
The episode opens with teenager Karen Swenson fleeing through a forest outside Bellefleur. She disappears in a strange burst of light, and her body is later found with two small marks on her lower back. Mulder connects her death to several similar incidents and uses the case to introduce Scully to the unexplained investigations collected in the FBI’s X-Files.
“Pilot” established the show’s central partnership: Mulder approaches the case as a believer in paranormal explanations, while Scully is assigned to apply scientific skepticism and evaluate—or debunk—his conclusions. Chris Carter wrote the episode, and Robert Mandel directed it.
Bellefleur is a fictional Oregon town created for the series, so it should not be replaced by real Oregon locations such as Astoria, Eugene, or Cannon Beach. Another potential confusion is that the episode was filmed around Vancouver, British Columbia. Its production location does not change the story’s setting: the case begins outside Bellefleur, Oregon.