Longmire Was Filmed in New Mexico
Absaroka County, Wyoming is fictional, but the filming locations in New Mexico are very real
Longmire, the A&E television series is set in fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming, however, it is filmed mainly in northern New Mexico.
Longmire is a modern crime drama that premiered in 2012 on the A&E network. The series ran for six seasons and focuses on Walt Longmire (played by Australian actor Robert Taylor), a Wyoming county sheriff who returns to work after his wife’s death. He investigates major crimes within his jurisdiction with the help of his friends and his daughter. Netflix picked it up for the last three seasons.
Why Not Shoot in Wyoming?
Tax incentives for film production companies were introduced in the 1990s and were created in response to an increasing number of movie productions shifting to other countries, like Canada. States benefit through movies being filmed in their area because it drives the economy through employment opportunities, revenue, and related infrastructure development. While New Mexico offers a 25-35 percent tax credit, Wyoming currently has no film tax program in place.
New Mexico has easier transportation and more airports than does Wyoming. The busiest airport in the whole state of Wyoming is Jackson Hole, with only one terminal and nine gates. Wyoming roads cross mountains, rivers and canyons where extreme winter weather has been known to cause closures in June, all of which would make filming a series in Wyoming difficult at best.
Walt Longmire’s Cabin
Walt’s cabin is located in the “Cabin District” of Valles Caldera National Historic Park which is about 90 minutes from Santa Fe.
The ranger said that we can look into the windows but not go up onto the porch. He did say that, from time to time, people will leave cans of Ranier Beer on the porch (Walt’s drink of choice). Unfortunately, there were none there the day we visited.
How to Visit the “Longmire” Cabin
Valles Caldera is a 14-mile-wide volcanic caldera in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico. In 2000, Valles Caldera National Preserve was made a unit of the National Park System.
You can find Walt’s cabin by going to the visitor center in the national preserve and ask the ranger and/or you can put “Baca Ranch Foreman’s Cabin” into your GPS. There currently is no fee to visit the preserve. Some of the sites on the internet say that you need a backcountry permit to visit the cabin, but I told the ranger I wanted to visit, and he pointed me to it and didn’t mention a permit. It is certainly a beautiful place and the drive itself is worth it. You can also visit Bandelier National Monument and the Manhattan Project National Historic Park in Los Alamos on the way.
Las Vegas, New Mexico
The downtown Las Vegas plaza serves as the town of Durant, Wyoming. Many scenes have the historic Plaza Hotel located just off the square in the background.
I stayed in the Plaza Hotel and the walls were graced with pictures from various movies that were filmed there such as No Country For Old Men.
Across the street from the square is the Absaroka County Sheriff’s Department. I like that they kept it like it was so we can all get our pictures taken there.
Other New Mexico Locations
Many other places around the state were used to film the scenes of the series. Santa Fe, the state’s capital city was used, and you can use this walking tour to see those places. Other towns were used as well such as Red River, Espanola and Eagles Nest. This website gives a good explanation of the places as well as flora and fauna you may encounter while visiting these places.
Northern New Mexico is beautiful and it’s easy to see why Longmire was filmed there. There’s so much to see so you might as well include these places on your next visit.
Next Time
I hope you all got to see at least a partial eclipse a few weeks ago. I was on a road trip through Colorado and Northern New Mexico, so I didn’t get to see totality (75% from where I was viewing). I did visit one of my bucket list places, Chaco Culture National Historic Park on this trip. There are two major astronomical events depicted on rock art at Chaco. We’ll take a look at those and see what the experts say the Ancestral Puebloans were recording in those rock faces.
When I visited Las Vegas, NM, I was astonished to see “Absaroka County Sheriffs Office” on Google maps while looking up restaurants. That’s how I learned Walt’s office was actually in NM!
I almost bought a ranch outside Las Vegas NM about 15 years ago. I got close—put down earnest money and the whole 9 yards. In the end I decided it was too much work to renovate—hence the somewhat affordable price.
I settled on Texas Hill Country instead. Love that area—drove Denver to Phoenix through there for 25 years.