Amazon Prime Video’s “Outer Range” might have been short-lived, wrapping up in just two seasons, yet this unique, genre-bending series captivated viewers with Josh Brolin at the helm as rancher Royal Abbott. Set against the picturesque backdrop of charming towns and breathtaking landscapes, the show delivered a riveting tale embedded with themes of family, land conflicts, ongoing feuds, and a mysterious hole possessing strange time-space properties. The Abbott family’s journey dealing with unusual challenges on their ranch, overshadowed by the majestic Teton mountains, makes it an ideal binge for enthusiasts of horror and fantasy-infused Westerns seeking a touch of prestige.

As a neo-Western sci-fi saga interlaced with a geological twist, the series leans heavily on its setting. It unfolds in the fictional, tight-knit town of Wabang, Wyoming, where secrets are hard to keep and evading tricky neighbors is nearly impossible. Surprisingly, the series didn’t actually film in Wyoming or even nearby; instead, its primary locations were in New Mexico, around Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Continue reading for an in-depth look at the particular structures and locales featured in the production.

To portray the Abbott family’s home, the “Outer Range” production crew constructed an impressive ranch from scratch at Buena Vista Ranch, a luxurious estate spanning three counties at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Interstate 25, close to Albuquerque. This venue is situated near the studios where interior scenes were meticulously crafted across six soundstages. In a conversation with the Set Decorators Society of America (SDSA), set decorator Marcia Calosio lauded the construction team’s remarkable work in building a complete ranch from the ground up in northern New Mexico on privately owned land. This effort wasn’t just superficial—it included a full-scale, two-story insulated farmhouse. Moreover, they erected the Abbott’s extensive barn complete with stalls, as well as other ranch structures like “miles of fencing” and Royal Abbott’s workshop and tack room.

Expressing her gratitude to local ranchers for their influence on the production in an interview with Den of Geek, “Outer Range” location manager Cyndy McCrossen emphasized the production team’s efforts to protect the land from the filming process as much as possible. As the ranch was built on a pristine plot of Buena Vista Ranch without so much as an outbuilding before the show came, the location team recreated a precise studio replica of the farmhouse’s first floor to reduce their impact on the grasslands and navigate less-than-ideal weather during the shoot. “They, of course, have access roads that they use so that they can move cattle and repair fences and whatnot, and the show had some leeway so we could create a drive up to the house, but we very much tried to stay to existing roads on the ranch,” McCrossen said. “It’s important not to leave a mark if you can help it.”

Neither Wabang or Amelia County exist in the real world. To create the community, the “Outer Range” location team headed to Las Vegas, New Mexico, a small town that’s around a two-hour drive to the northeast of Albuquerque with a population just under 13,000. “It’s not enormous,” location manager and scout Cyndy McCrossen told Den of Geek. “A few of the wonderful hotels and the merchants at the time were really hurting because of COVID. So their hospitality was key.” According to McCrossen, approximately 80% of the hotel rooms in and around the town were being occupied by the crew, so the production provided a big boost to the local economy.

Las Vegas, New Mexico officially dates back to 1835 and has more than 900 buildings on the National Historic Registry.  It was chosen for the series for its vibes — specifically, the sense of a place that seems out of step with any specific time, adding to the dreamy, timeless feel of Wabang. It’s something McCrossen found important for a sci-fi series with time travel at the heart of its story. “It quickly becomes evident it is contemporary, but there’s a certain attraction to that aspect of being ‘forgotten by time,'” she said. “Outer Range” joins a long list of TV and film productions to take advantage of the community’s timeless aura. The likes of “Longmire,” “Red Dawn,” “Easy Rider,” “Ransom Canyon,” “Paul,” “Natural Born Killers,” and the Coen brothers’ best movie “No Country For Old Men” all filmed here.

With its many buildings dating back to the late 1800s, including the Aniceto Baca Building, Las Vegas, New Mexico’s Bridge Street is a gem of historic architecture. This made it the perfect stand-in for downtown Wabang, the beating heart of Amelia County in “Outer Range.” Look closely during those main drag scenes and you’ll see a gold mine of diverse historic architecture representing the Italianate (meaning buildings that were inspired by the palazzos of the Italian Renaissance era) and California Mission styles.

Because “Outer Range” was originally filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the production folks all but took over that main drag while filming the show that would go on to be recognized as one of Amazon Prime Video’s best original series of 2022. And scouting great locations that just needed a little set design flair turned out to be the easy part. “Las Vegas has hundreds of buildings that are on historical register, and a lot of the buildings were sort of in flux, economically,” location manager and scout Cyndy McCrossen told Den of Geek.

In the third episode of “Outer Range,” Autumn (Imogen Poots) hitchhikes into town to pick up her prescription for lamotrigine at Wabang Drugs, a little drugstore on Bridge Street. As she walks through the store and tells the pharmacist, “It’s not my first lamotrigine rodeo…I gotta stay stable,” we see the small size of the store’s interior, which features a few short aisles and a counter area where the pharmacist stocks the strong stuff.

Like several of the show’s Bridge Street locations, the 123 Bridge Street drugstore is actually inside a historic Las Vegas, New Mexico building. It was put together in a spot that had been functioning as an art gallery, with the drugstore appearing inside the gallery’s foyer. Before that, the location appears to have been home to couple of stores for bohemian wares, including a natural goods and gift store called Mariposa and, at one point, a head shop and piercing joint called Unique. A production truck from the series can be seen in front of the store on the Google street view shots picked up in March 2021. 

As Maria Olivares’ (Isabel Arraiza) place of employment, the Bison Valley Bank of Wyoming shows up more than once in “Outer Range.” The real-world bank in Las Vegas, New Mexico is located at 518 Douglas Avenue and it’s called The Community 1st Bank. The bank actually has a fascinating history, having occupied several different sites in the quaint town. It opened back in December 1949 with its first location at 517 6th Street, going by the name First National Bank. “In 2005, the bank changed its banking charter from a national to a state bank to better reflect its role in serving northeastern New Mexico,” the bank’s website explains. “On June 27, 2011, the bank moved its main office 100 yards up the street to 600 Douglas Ave. occupying the entire Crockett Building.”

Designed in 1899 by Rapp and Rapp (the same architectural firm that would one day be known for designing Chicago’s most iconic theaters), the Crockett Building was originally the home of Murphey’s Drug Store. In its heyday, the drugstore featured a soda fountain and a seating area where locals could enjoy a Coca-Cola with their neighbors. By the time the bank took over the location, the spot had sat vacant for some time and was in dire need of renovation. They hired a team to preserve the building’s historic elements like its tin ceiling and exposed brick, and the end result — also seen in “Outer Range” — is a testament to those efforts.

In the second episode of “Outer Range,” Rhett Abbott (Lewis Pullman) stops at Maria’s workplace and asks her if she has time for a chat. She responds by asking him to meet her at the diner across the street, a quaint little place called Odessa’s according to the sign on the window. With its large, comfy booths and small interior, it gives the feel of a Double R Diner, a key location from the equally surreal drama “Twin Peaks.” Recalling the stories behind key “Outer Range” set design decisions to the SDSA, set decorator Marcia Calosio described the locale as a “small town diner where every local eats.”

However, as is often the case with TV filming locations, the real-world geography doesn’t add up — Maria says the diner is “across the street,” but this isn’t the case. While the actual diner, located at 516 Grand Avenue, is not far from the bank, it’s actually down the street and around the corner. While the diner doesn’t appear to be open today, the location was once home to State Cafe. As of February 2024, the spot still bore some of the signage promising a free birthday sundae that’s visible in the “Outer Range” scene.

One of the most memorable shooting spots used for “Outer Range” is a tiny Old West railroad town near the Sangre de Cristo mountains that feels like it’s been frozen in time: Lamy. Named after the French-American Roman Catholic prelate Jean-Baptiste Lamy, who became the first Archbishop of Santa Fe after making the trip across the Atlantic, it’s located about 18 miles south of Santa Fe itself.

The town dates back to the time of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF) and became well-known as the location of a spur line to Santa Fe. There was little more than goat pasture on the site before the railroad arrived in 1909. With its population of less than 100 residents, the town that exists there today still looks a lot like it did when it could only be reached via railway.

In “Outer Range” Season 1, Episode 4 (“The Loss”), Royal and the good people of Wabang show up at Weil and Grady’s Saloon for a funeral reception honoring the late, not-so-great Trevor Tillerson (Matt Lauria). It’s a pretty slick-looking saloon with stained glass windows, decadent chandeliers, and other lovely 19th-century details. These scenes were filmed in the Legal Tender Saloon and Eating House. The Legal Tender is the oldest bar currently in operation in New Mexico, one you can visit today for a reasonably-priced meal in a spectacular setting. On its website, the saloon and eatery claims to be “where the pavement ends and the West begins,” and it certainly gives this vibe.

The Legal Tender opened in 1881 as Pfluegger’s Mercantile, a general store that kept the small community of Lamy running. The building, which includes original adobe and stone, stands today as a living testament to Lamy’s fascinating story. “It carries that whole architectural history of what it was like to build here in the 1880s to the early 1900s,” Allan Affeldt, who helped acquire The Legal Tender from the Lamy Railroad and History Museum and turn it into a working bar and restaurant, told Route magazine. “But then, a secondary dining room was added on in the 1970s, and of course, the great big kitchen in the back, but they were done in period style, so it has that kind of Western frontier town motif on the façade. It’s just like a movie set, except it’s the real deal.”

When Royal Abbott senses something hinky is afoot at the Abbott Ranch, he hops in his truck and heads to the University of Wyoming in Laramie to confer with geologist Dr. Nia Bintu (Yrsa Daley-Ward). After parking his truck outside, right in front of the big dinosaur skull in the department’s window, Royal meets with Bintu in her office, where he gets a clue about the mining company BY9. It’s a fascinating scene, but locals were quick to point out that this building actually belongs to a different university.

This scene was actually filmed at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, with the Physics and Astronomy Interdisciplinary Science (PAIS) building standing in for the University of Wyoming geology department. According to Cowboy State Daily, Royal’s trip would have actually taken much longer in real life. “Assuming the Abbott Ranch is in the vicinity of the Tetons, this little cross-state venture is a 12-hour drive, round trip,” writes features reporter Jake Nichols. “Even though Abbott’s time with the professor is brief, it’s not realistic to assume he’ll be home for dinner unless he left at 6 a.m. and really loves driving.”

One thing the “Outer Range” team couldn’t recreate physically was the Grand Teton National Park: The mountain range that looms over the ranch was added later with CGI. It looks great, but anyone familiar with the Tetons might find it less plausible, as one Redditor pointed out. “I paused to enjoy it for a minute, having spent much of my childhood at my grandparents’ house between the airport and the downtown of Jackson Hole,” u/PrincessLeafa wrote. “Turns out the show was mostly filmed in NM and they just digitally added the Tetons. It’s not ruining the show by any means but it did kinda hurt my soul a lil’ bit.”

Although it’s probably not worth nitpicking in a series about a large, time-traveling hole on a Wyoming ranch, that’s not the only nonsensical thing about the Abbott’s Tetons home. As noted in Cowboy State Daily, Royal and Cecilia Abbott’s (Lili Taylor) radio somehow has the magical ability to pick up a Cheyenne, Wyoming FM radio station. “That’s one strong transmission to be carrying almost 500 miles as the crow flies,” writer Jake Nichols pointed out.

Even if they indulged in a little creative geography to pull off what is arguably one of the best sci-fi shows of the 2020s so far, the production team behind “Outer Range” did not mess around when it came to their sound design. “Our approach for the sound design was to tackle each layer at a time,” supervising sound editor Andrea Bella told Post Perspective. According to Bella, she and sound designer Kevin Peters put in the work to make sure everything was geographically accurate to the region, right down to the prairie winds and the local cricket and bird populations. “When it came to all these Wyoming landscapes, we really wanted to get the nature right and respect that environment.” 

These sounds were especially important, Bella noted, because of the place they don’t exist: at the edge of the hole. It’s something that might seem subtle at first viewing, but it really adds to the supernatural vibe governing these scenes. It’s something show creator Brian Watkins was adamant about, with Bella emphasizing, “At the hole, nature stops.” According to Tom Pelphrey, who plays Perry Abbott, the actual wind they experienced while shooting in New Mexico was very unpredictable. “There was a lot of extremes of weather,” Pelphrey told Looper in an exclusive interview. “I don’t know if it shows up in the show in a way that the audience can appreciate but I know, for us, it felt like a physical trial at times. That added to how close the cast got and how real that world felt for us. It did not feel like being on a TV set most of the time.”

If you’ve already watched “Outer Range” and you’re looking for something else to get your teeth stuck into, check out Looper’s list of the most binge-worthy sci-fi shows of all time.