I set out to watch this movie after finding out it was shot here in in New Mexico, all within a few hours from Albuquerque. Most of the filming was done around Santa Fe, Abiquiú, and Galisteo. The town of Bisbee in the movie was shot at Bonanza Creek Movie Ranch, which is a often-used film location just South of Santa Fe. Situated on several thousand acres, the ranch has a whole movie town and several frontier home sets as permanent features. The area has hosted well over a 100 movies through the years, as well as ideo and commercial shoots. Some recent films shot here also include Hostiles, Cowboys and Aliens, and Longmire.
Diablo Canyon, BLM.
Movies first came to the ranch in 1955, when a former Hollywood chauffeur brought producers for a Jimmy Stewart western to see the place, which was once home to a gold mining town called Bonanza. The beauty of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, the artesian-fed lakes and cottonwood groves fueled a second bonanza for the area, attracting a steady stream of Hollywood location scouts and producers. In l989 an Italian producer constructed a whole western town set, complete with a 2 storey Victorian house, which Ranch owners petitioned to be kept intact after the project wrapped.
Bonanza Creek Ranch
The town of Galisteo, also near Santa Fe, was used as the location for the gritty town of Contention in the movie.
Galisteo has also been used in a number of other westerns including Silverado, The Hi-Lo Country, and Young Guns as well as in the first Thor movie. More scenes were filmed in the Diablo Canyon Recreation Area that is part of BLM land near Bandelier National Monument. Diablo Canyon is a popular hiking and climbing spot, just north of Santa Fe. Scenes of chinese workers laying railroad lines and digging tunnels were filmed near Jemez, at the Gilman Tunnels. The awesome tunnels were blasted out in the 1920's for a railway line, but now you can drive through them, as they take you deep into the gorgeous Jemez Mountains.
Gilman Tunnels, John Fowler.
