Wyoming
Of The Greatest Westerns Ever Made, Wyoming Is Tops — Even If They Aren't Filmed Here
The American Film Institute defines Westerns as films “set in the American West that embody the spirit, the struggle and the demise of the new frontier.”
The themes and aesthetics of the Western genre are prevalent throughout the American West, but perhaps nowhere as pronounced and authentic as Wyoming, where Western culture is dominant. That why it makes sense that the Cowboy State is a favorite choice for setting and filming Westerns.
And Wyoming’s Westerns include some of the genre’s most revered films ever made.
But while it’s often a backdrop for Hollywood productions, it’s rarely a background. Wyoming can simultaneously be seen everywhere and almost nowhere.
The Good, The Better, And The Best
Steve Latshaw is a filmmaker and historian with more than 30 credits as a writer and director. He is also a historical advisor for the Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine, California, a community used as a location for countless Western films and television shows.
Latshaw said he was “astonished” when he realized how prevalent Wyoming is in the Western genre.
“When I think of Westerns, you tend to default to the obvious states: California, Arizona, New Mexico, certainly Texas,” he said. “However, there were not only a significant number of Western films set in Wyoming, but a significant number of important Westerns. That’s critical.”
He is not alone in that opinion. In 2008, the American Film Institute (AFI) published its 10 Top 10, lists of the 10 greatest American films in 10 film genres, including Westerns.
Of the top 10 Westerns on AFI’s list, four — “Cat Ballou,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “Unforgiven” and “Shane” — are set in Wyoming. At 40%, that makes the Cowboy State better represented than any other state on the list.
But that’s representation as a setting for these films, not as a location for actually making them. Of those four, only “Shane” was set and shot in Wyoming. That’s because there are two sides to Wyoming’s place in Western films: as a setting and as a location.
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The “Shane” cabin featured in the classic Western is still in Grand Teton National Park. (Getty Images) -
A scene from “Shane” set in front of a graveyard with the Grand Tetons in the background. (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
As A Setting
American writer Frank Gruber identified seven “basic plots” for Westerns. While not universal, most follow at least one of these seven storylines: the Union Pacific, the Ranch, the Empire, the Revenge, the Cavalry and Indian, the Outlaw, and the Marshal.
Each plot has its staples and characters, such as the elaborate chases and mystery of the Revenge Story or the threats of rustlers and nefarious landowners in the Ranch Story. Most Westerns incorporate some of these troupes.
Based on the basics of the seven plots, Latshaw can see why Wyoming is such a critical and prized setting for Western films. It’s a lot easier to build characters and stories when the state’s history already has such fertile history for the plot.
“Whenever you’re going to write a Western, particularly a period Western or historical Western, you’re going to look for story ideas in terms of the history that was there,” he said. “In other words, are there real-life stories? And there are so many dramatic events in Wyoming that would be a good setting for the characters and a story you want to tell.”
There are tons of precedents for all the basic Western plots in Wyoming’s history. The Johnson County Wars, the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, the Hole in the Wall Gang, other outlaws and gunslingers, and countless other authentic histories rife with dramatic potential.
Of course, all Western states have historical fodder for Westerns, like The Alamo in Texas or the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. But Wyoming has a little bit of everything.
“When you’re setting a film in the American West, you’re going to look for historical lynchpins to sort of hang your story on,” Latshaw said. “I think Wyoming is up there with many states with rich and vivid stories.”
Hollywood built its prestige and profits by transporting audiences to any place and time to tell compelling stories. But that doesn’t mean film studios actually have to go there to be there, and that has been Hollywood’s approach for most of Wyoming’s Westerns.
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Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy with the Hole in the Wall Gang in a scene from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” (Cowboy State Daily Staff) -
Robert Redford as The Sundance Kid and Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) -
Robert Redford as The Sundance Kid and Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy. (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
As A Location
While plenty of Westerns are set in Wyoming, the state is largely absent from its own filmography. In his research, Latshaw was equally surprised by its prevalence and absence.
“It appears that Wyoming has been more important as a dramatic setting than an actual filming location,” he said. “There haven’t been a huge number of Westerns that were actually filmed there, which was really interesting.”
There are frequent Wyoming “cameos” in Western cinema. “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” “Dances with Wolves” and “Django Unchained” are important Westerns that include scenes shot in Wyoming, usually the iconic facade of the Tetons.
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Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman star in “Unforgiven.” (Cowboy State Daily Staff) -
“Unforgiven” won the Best Picture Oscar in 1993. Although not filmed in Wyoming, it was set in the Cowboy State. (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
Of AFI’s four Wyoming Westerns:
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“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” filmed its Wyoming scenes in Utah.
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“Unforgiven” was primarily filmed in Alberta, Canada (a popular Wyoming stand-in)
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Buckskin Joe Frontier Town, a combination film studio and theme park in Cañon City, Colorado, was the location for “Cat Ballou’s” production.
Wyoming isn’t and hasn’t ever been a go-to location for Western films or films in general.
One much-noted reason is the lack of a state film incentive. Productions often choose to film in states that provide incentives to shoot there, usually in the form of tax credits, exemptions, cash grants and fee-free locations.
The latest attempt to make Wyoming more appealing to filmmakers by offering rebates based on their Wyoming expenses died on the state House floor during the 2023 session of the Wyoming Legislature.
Latshaw believes there’s another significant reason why Wyoming isn’t a more popular film location, and it’s one Wyomingites know all too well.
“That may be simply down to climate,” he said. “Looking at the weather tables, it appears that fall, winter and spring tend to be cold. That narrows the window of when you can shoot comfortably in Wyoming. So that may be a major factor.”
But bad weather and lack of incentives haven’t stopped passionate film producers in the past. A notable example is 1953’s “Shane,” which was almost entirely filmed in Jackson and Grand Teton National Park.
“George Stevens, a powerful A-list director at the time, (wanted) the best possible locations for his film,” he said. He didn’t want the movie “to look like it was shot in Chatsworth, California, or even Lone Pine. He wanted authentic locations and certainly had the clout to say, ‘No, I want to shoot regardless of whatever hardships. I want to shoot this in Wyoming because that’s what the look is.’”
In the case of “Shane,” the authenticity of Jackson’s picturesque landscapes contributes to the film’s overall effect, often cited as one of the greatest Westerns ever made. It’s one of several Western films preserved in the U.S. Library of Congress.
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A scene from the Western “Cat Ballou.” (Getty Images) -
Lee Marvin played “the drunkest gun in the West” and Jane Fonda the title character in the Western comedy “Cat Ballou.” (Cowboy State Daily Staff) -
A scene, which the audience is supposed to believe is in Wyoming, in “Cat Ballou.” (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
Wyoming’s Westerns
Regardless of its lack of physical screen time, Westerns set in Wyoming are amongst the best told in the genre. They range from some of the earliest forays on film to vast epics of Western melodrama to the most stinging critiques of the genre and the history it draws from.
“I think writers and filmmakers saw that it was an important setting for a great Western film,” Latshaw said. “Wyoming has so much history, and it’s very picturesque. It’s just beautiful country. A lot of films have been set in Wyoming because of its history and because it was so deeply involved in the history of the Western expansion. That’s key to its success.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
by Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile
The Seminoe pumped-water storage hydroelectric project in Carbon County advanced toward final approval this month, when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued its environmental impact statement, leaving critics warning of potential fish kills and other risks to wildlife.
Though the newest plan to minimize myriad impacts to fisheries, wildlife and local recreation economies makes concessions “around the margins,” project skeptics say the FERC ignored calls — including from local and state elected officials — to make more meaningful changes regarding threats, including to a “blue ribbon” trout fishery and a vital bighorn sheep herd.
“I’m very disheartened by the final EIS,” Trout Unlimited’s Wyoming Government Relations Director Patrick Harrington told WyoFile.
The plan still doesn’t mandate operational responses that would effectively prevent a trout kill in the prized Miracle Mile of the North Platte River immediately downstream of Seminoe Reservoir due to the threat of rising water temperatures, Harrington said. Trout are a cold-water species and particularly sensitive to warmer temperatures. Groups like Trout Unlimited and Friends of the North Platte have warned that even one day of higher-than-tolerable water temperatures could result in a devastating fish kill.
The potential for a Miracle Mile fish kill still exists, Harrington said, because FERC declined to update its water forecast modeling to include more recent climate-change analysis that shows higher temperatures and lower annual snowpack for cold water runoff. That leaves the protocol to respond to rising water temperatures woefully inadequate.
“It still leaves serious risk to fisheries — and those go back to our concerns over the data that informs the [water quality] model,” Harrington said.
The revised plan also retains multiple waivers to bypass seasonal construction limitations designed to protect wildlife, including the Ferris-Seminoe bighorn sheep herd. Developer rPlus Hydro says the waivers are vital to the economic feasibility for what it hopes will be a five-year construction period. Complying with the slate of seasonal wildlife restrictions will add major cost, the company has testified.
“These [wildlife timing restrictions] did not come as a surprise to them,” Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation Executive Director Katie Cheesbrough said, adding that granting waivers of science-backed protections would set a dangerous precedent for other industrial projects in the state. “Those wildlife restrictions were publicly available, and they knew that going into it. If it was going to make the project cost-prohibitive, then they shouldn’t do the project. It’s not on Wyoming to ensure that [wildlife protections] are within their cost range.”
rPlus Hydro responds
The Utah-based company proposes building a 13,400-acre-foot reservoir in the Bennett Mountains overlooking Seminoe Reservoir near the dam — one of several reservoirs on the North Platte River. The $4 billion facility would pump water uphill during daytime “off-peak demand” hours for electricity when wind and solar power are plentiful and wholesale electricity is cheapest, according to rPlus Hydro.
“Think of it as a ‘water battery’ that stores energy generated when demand is low,” the company told WyoFile. “When demand increases, water is released from the upper reservoir back into Seminoe, driving hydroelectric turbines to produce electricity.”
Skeptics in Wyoming have cast doubt on the necessity and consumer benefit of the electrical generation daily balance strategy.
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This map depicts the Seminoe pumped water storage hydroelectric project area. (Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality)
For its part, the company contends that the Seminoe pumped-water storage project represents a $200 million annual savings to ratepayers. A company representative also told WyoFile the FERC’s final EIS “confirms the project is needed for future energy growth and reliability while also safeguarding both the North Platte River and bighorn sheep.”
rPlus Hydro Deputy General Counsel Kevin Baker pointed to the fact that the Wyoming Department of Quality granted a “section 401” water quality certificate for the project earlier this year. The state certificate is proof that “the project will not harm downstream waters, including the Miracle Mile, so drinking water, fishing and recreation remain protected,” Baker wrote.
“The state’s conclusion is backed by a robust, state-led Water Quality Adaptive Management Plan which provides real-time monitoring and strong enforcement measures designed to identify and correct any potential issues before they develop.”
The Environmental Protection Agency agreed with Wyoming DEQ’s findings and stipulations, Baker added.
But there remain huge holes in the modeling — rooted in the failure to consider a changing climate — that FERC, DEQ and the EPA have based their analysis on, Harrington contends. “It’s a castle made of sand.”
Regarding wildlife, and the Ferris-Seminoe bighorn sheep herd in particular, rPlus Hydro contends it is committed to “strict construction practices to minimize disturbance and significant investment in habitat and herd management to ensure its continued health and viability.”
But those promises are not enshrined in FERC’s stipulations for the project, said Cheesbrough of the Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation.
There’s no way, she said, to ensure the bighorn sheep herd, and other wildlife, will be protected due to the multiple waivers FERC wants to allow for seasonal restrictions. Understandably, Cheesbrough noted, the restrictions for bighorn sheep, sage grouse, raptors and other wildlife would black out much of the calendar, limiting when construction could take place.
Protecting wildlife, Cheesbrough said, would likely add several years and dramatically increase the project’s cost. But, she added, “For them to be like, ‘Well, we just can’t afford to do it here if we have to abide by all of this,’ and then asking for waivers, it seems like a very dangerous precedent to set.”
Public and government pushback
The FERC is the primary permitting agency for the project because of its reliance on federally managed water-storage reservoirs, hydroelectric and electrical transmission systems. It’s a source of heartburn for locals, Harrington said, because the agency seems less beholden to public and local government input compared to other federal agencies.
“It’s frustrating,” Harrington said. “I think this project is headed toward licensing in September because the adjustments FERC has made have sort of just indicated that there’s not going to be a lot of changes to the plan as proposed.”
“For them to be like, ‘Well, we just can’t afford to do it here if we have to abide by all of this,’ and then asking for waivers, it seems like a very dangerous precedent to set.”
Katie Cheesbrough, Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation
In May, the Legislature’s Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee heard a large outcry from wildlife and recreation enthusiasts opposing the project, as well as from local officials from Carbon and Natrona counties.
“These concerns are not theoretical for us,” Casper Mayor Ray Pacheco told the legislative panel. “Casper relies directly on the North Platte River for drinking water, wastewater treatment, recreation, tourism and the quality of life.”
Committee members bristled at what they saw as a severe lack of engagement by rPlus Hydro and FERC with the public and local officials. Committee leaders agreed to send a letter to Wyoming’s congressional delegation, as well as to FERC, imploring officials to insist on meaningful protections.
What’s next?
The FERC has indicated that the publication of the final EIS this month does not trigger a public comment period before giving its final approval later this year. Some governmental agencies, however, still have the power to persuade the FERC, according to WyoFile sources.
So what powers can be exerted on the FERC to change course on the project?
For example, the wildlife waivers and other accommodations in the FERC’s plan do not align with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s resource management plan for the region, administered by the BLM’s Rawlins Field Office. If the BLM chooses to accommodate FERC’s plan for the project, it would likely have to amend its resource management plan — a process that is more inclusive of public and local government agencies.
Harrington and Cheesbrough both noted that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, for example, has refused to endorse a carte blanche waiver of seasonal wildlife restrictions. That could be a major factor if the BLM initiates the process to align its management plan with FERC’s proposed certification of the project.
“To me, that’s a massive hurdle,” Harrington said.
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
Related
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The Wyoming Department of Family Services recently announced that it will be launching a federal program this week to provide grocery assistance to more than 37,000 school-aged children across the state.
Known as SUN Bucks, the initiative provides a one-time $120 benefit per eligible child to help families cover food costs during the summer months, the department announced in a release. Gov. Mark Gordon previously authorized the program’s implementation through an executive order on April 15.
Gordon described the initiative as an essential tool to support children who may otherwise lack access to healthy food while school is out of session.
“We want our children to thrive, because when our children are successful, so too are our communities,” he stated in the release.
According to DFS, most qualifying children will be automatically enrolled in the program. The department reports that it began sending eligibility notifications this week via mail and email.
Eligible families can expect to receive SUN Bucks electronic benefit transfer cards in the mail starting in early July.
DFS Director Korin Schmidt said in a statement that the program is specifically designed to assist rural children who lose access to school-provided breakfast and lunch during the summer months, adding that the benefits will allow families to purchase groceries as needed to ensure food is available in the home for those missed meals.
The SUN Bucks cards will function similarly to other benefit programs and be accepted at any retailer participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
While tens of thousands of children are enrolled automatically, some eligible families may still need to apply, according to the press release. Residents can check their child’s enrollment status or submit an application through the DFS SUN Bucks website starting June 22.
For more information, people can visit the DFS website, email ask-sunbucks@wyo.gov or call 307-777-8786 between 8:15 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Related
Sublette County Sheriff’s Office via TMX
BIG PINEY, Wyoming — A landspout briefly swirled across an open field Saturday near Big Piney, Wyoming, in a striking display of unsettled weather caught on camera.
Sublette County Sheriff K.C. Lehr shared the footage on Facebook. It shows the narrow column of wind twisting as it moved through the area north of Big Piney.
Unlike traditional tornadoes, landspouts form without a rotating thunderstorm or mesocyclone. They tend to be smaller and shorter-lived than supercell tornadoes, but they can still produce damaging winds, according to the National Weather Service.
Check out the video in the player above.
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