Legendary Paramount Ranch Being Rebuilt After 2018 Fire
Have you ever wanted to go hiking through a nostalgic movie set and pretend that you’re the star of your own western? Turns out you can at the Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills, California. The National Park Service is currently working to replace some of what was lost during the 2018 Woolsey Fire that swept through California. The Ranch and hiking trails will remain open and free to visit during the construction and will end sometime in the fall of 2024.
Even if filming is taking place there, guests are still free to visit as long as they don’t disrupt the set. If you’ve never heard of Paramount Ranch, the area was leased by Paramount Pictures starting in 1927 and many movies and television shows have been filmed in this area over the years.
Pixabay
In addition to some beautiful hiking trails, Paramount Ranch has a diverse landscape with several buildings that were created there for film. A western town was built there in the 1950s for shows such as The Cisco Kid which was unfortunately affected by the fires. Several areas survived the flames including the train depot used in the series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and the chapel used in Westworld.
Remind Paramount Pictures owned the property until the end of the golden age and William Hertz purchased part of the land in 1953 and created the western town. Just two years later, he sold the property to three investors who renamed it Paramount Sportsman’s Ranch and opened the Paramount Raceway. While several films were created on the race track including Disney classic The Love Bug, there were two fatal accidents on the track which led to its closure in 1957.
Tony Esparza/CBS/Everett Collection
In the next two decades, ownership kept changing but films and TV shows continued to be made there. It wasn’t just films and shows either! If you’re familiar with The Eagle’s Desperado album, the cover photo and some other photos were shot at Paramount Ranch.
In 1980, the National Park Service purchased part of the property and promised to revitalize the area. From 1993 to 1998, Jane Seymour‘s show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, was filmed there consistently and fans would often be able to watch the show during filming. Other more recent productions at Paramount Ranch include The Lake House (2006), American Sniper (2014), and Westworld (2016-2017).
Rawpixel/Flickr
If you’re interested in visiting Paramount Ranch and want to look at a complete list of what has been filmed there, click here.
Wild West- Heroes & Villains
November 2022
Celebrates the unique sense of justice, compassion and adventure in the Old West as seen on TV and in the movies
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