1883: Fort Worth to the Dutton Ranch in Montana

In the first episode Shea Brennan hears of a Pinkerton job in Fort Worth, and this building on W. Exchange Avenue plays the Pinkerton office. Shea and Thomas, played by Sam Elliott and LaMonica Garrett, are both Pinkerton agents, which is why they end up guiding the wagon train. The Stockyards were dressed as 1883 in September 2021.

Margaret Dutton travels by train from Tennessee with her children to Fort Worth to join her husband, James. The Cody Building doubles for Hotel Calhoun, where the Duttons spend their first night in Fort Worth: the ground floor is the hotel lobby, and offices upstairs were used as Claire's and Elsa's bedrooms. Today the lower level is a nightclub, Rodeo Exchange.

Visitor guidance: The Cody Building is on West Exchange Avenue in the Stockyards; the lower level is Rodeo Exchange, a cowboy-friendly nightclub.

Sheriff Jim Courtright, played by Billy Bob Thornton, recites his infamous line here. Pearl's Dance Hall & Saloon doubles as the White Elephant Saloon, a real bar of the old Hells Half Acre district; lore says it saw Fort Worth's last gunfight between its owner Luke Short and Courtright. Pearl's itself dates to the late 1800s. It is not open to the public today, but the street outside is.

Before the wagon train leaves, Shea hires two cowboys, Wade and Ennis, to help catch and escort feral cattle. The historic Stockyards pens, behind the Stockyards Exchange Building, appear in several scenes where characters walk through them. They once held hundreds of livestock and sit mostly empty now. Next door, the Fort Worth Herd still drives longhorns along Exchange Avenue twice a day.

Location precision: The pens appear in several scenes, but the show does not tie one scene to one pen; the pin marks the Stockyards district.

Visitor guidance: The Fort Worth Herd's cattle drives run twice daily on Exchange Avenue, and the pens can be viewed from the stairs behind the Exchange Building.

On the border of Indian Territory the group stops at Doan's Crossing. Shea hires Colton and a camp cook, Thomas buys Noemi a mirror, and Margaret gets drunk with Carolyn, the local shopkeeper, played by Rita Wilson. The real crossing had a postmaster, Corwin F. Doan, who also ran a store to supply the cowboys. The series itself filmed its rural scenes at many locations, mostly in Texas.

The Crow leader points James Dutton to a valley called Paradise in Montana Territory, and Elsa dies there in her father's arms. The Dutton Ranch scenes of the show were filmed at the real Chief Joseph Ranch near Darby, Montana, and the same big house stars in Yellowstone. Filming of 1883 ended here in Montana in January 2022.