Is 'Ransom Canyon' A Real Place? What to Know About the Netflix Western's Filming Locations

Netflix's new Western series Ransom Canyon is the latest show to give viewers a dose of small-town, community-values escapism. (Virgin River and Sweet Magnolias fans, this is a must-watch.) Based on the book series by Jodi Thomas, the Texas-set romantic drama takes place in the titular ranch town, where its residents navigate interpersonal drama as industrialists set upon the community, looking to build a water pipeline through the canyon.

The comfort series, which released all 10 episodes of season 1 on Netflix on April 17, turns the titular locale into a character in its own right. As showrunner April Blake tells Netflix's Tudum, "At its core, Ransom Canyon isn’t just a town, it’s an idea. It’s the painful longing for your first love. It’s the burning desire to protect your family—Ransom has it all."

However, before you spend hours searching for Texas ranch houses on Zillow, the filming locations that fill up the series aren't where viewers may expect. Below, read on to learn more about where Ransom Canyon was filmed, including which real-life ranches stood in for Quinn (Minka Kelly), Staten (Josh Duhamel), and Davis's (Eoin Macken) homes.

Is Ransom Canyon, Texas a real place?

Unlike beloved fictional small towns like Virgin River or Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls, Ransom Canyon is a real-life town in Texas. The municipality lies nine miles southeast of Lubbock, Texas, and has a population of just 1,189 people, per the 2020 census. Author Jodi Thomas, who grew up in nearby Amarillo, Texas, includes nods to the West Texas area throughout the source romance novel. However, the real-life Ransom Canyon is much smaller and less affluent than the TV version.

Where is 'Ransom Canyon' filmed?

Sorry, Texans, but the new Netflix hit was not filmed in the Lone Star State. Instead, Ransom Canyon is filmed throughout New Mexico, in the Santa Fe and Albuquerque areas. In addition to rural locations near the state's capital and its largest city, the Netflix series also utilized Las Vegas, New Mexico, a small town east of Santa Fe, to stand in for the fictional town of Crossroads.

"Most of New Mexico is adobe architecture, and there’s this one little old mining town in northern New Mexico very close to the Texas border called Las Vegas, ironically, that just looks like an old Texas town," Blair told Tudum. "It has all the old turn-of-the-century architecture and storefronts."

Meanwhile, some of the properties that stood in for Ransom Canyon's ranches include the Blame Her Ranch near Santa Fe, which stood in for Davis's Bar W Ranch; Dead Horse Ranch, which was Staten's Double K; and the main quarters of Buena Vista Ranch for Cap Fuller's home, according to House Beautiful. Also, Quinn's home is the Pond House at Bonanza Creek Ranch, a historic filming location used in over 150 movies since it was constructed in the early 1950s, as stated on its website. (The property also houses a working cattle ranch, the Jarrott Ranch.)