In the world of TV police procedurals, Longmire stands alone. The series follows a small police
department in the middle of Wyoming, where dirt roads replace city concrete and the law
officers wear cowboy boots. Needless to say, the story of Longmire is far from ordinary.
Longmire is set in the fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming. The series, however,
is mostly filmed in New Mexico. Specifically it's shot in Santa Fe,
Pecos, Los Alamos, and Las Vegas, New Mexico - not to be confused with the Nevada casino town.
The Valles Caldera around Las Vegas stands in for many of the
breathtaking Wyoming exteriors, including Walt Longmire's cabin.
The Las Vegas plaza stands in for the town and workplace of Longmire and the
interiors are also shot in New Mexico, at a place called Garson Studios in Santa Fe.
New Mexico offers a 25-35 percent tax credit, whereas Wyoming tops out at 15 percent so it's
no surprise that Longmire shoots down south. New Mexico also has easier transportation and
more airports. The busiest airport in the whole state of Wyoming is Jackson Hole,
with only one terminal and nine gates. Plus its roads run across mountains,
rivers and canyons where extreme winter weather has been known to cause closures as late as June.
Any production shot in wild places will face challenges. When filming out west,
one of those challenges can be wildfires. While filming Season 2 in 2013, wildfires
surrounded the set locations. The Thompson Ridge Fire raged on one side of the preserve,
while the Tres Lagunas Fire hemmed them in from another direction, covering the sky with smoke.
At first producers tried to shift locations.
Given the fact that the small area in New Mexico was full of firefighters and emergency crews,
however, producer Chris Donahue said to the Albuquerque Journal that they halted
everything because they, quote, "didn't want to be in the way of any of the responders."
The Arizona-based Granite Mountain Hotshots were part of the team
that eventually put out the fires. Unfortunately, on June 30th, 2013,
19 of those firefighters died fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire near Prescott.
The season 2 finale, "Bad Medicine," honored the deceased hotshots in the credits by saying,
"Dedicated to the Granite Mountain Hotshots and all the firefighters who
saved the historic buildings in the Valles Caldera National Preserve."
Those heroic firefighters would end up inspiring their own movie,
Only the Brave, starring Josh Brolin, Miles Teller, and Jeff Bridges.
Longmire opened up with strong numbers and its ratings grew over the first three seasons. Season
2 rose to about 6 million viewers and season 3 only dropped slightly to 5.6 million viewers.
And yet despite the high ratings, Longmire got canceled after just three seasons.
"Why?"
It was unexpected considering the fact that season 3 ends in a cliffhanger with a father possibly
killing his son. But, there was another reason for the cancellation: Longmire's fans were too old.
A&E said it canceled the hit show because the average viewer age was 60,
versus the 48-year-olds who made up A&E's average demographic.
So apparently it took A&E 3 seasons to figure out that a police procedural about a
cantankerous old cowboy sheriff who refuses to get a cellphone might appeal to older viewers.
After Longmire was canceled, Warner Horizon, the producer of Longmire,
began shopping it around. Given the large audience there was obviously demand, especially due to the
season 3 cliffhanger. A&E had said that the older audience was less appealing to advertisers, but
Netflix doesn't have to worry about advertisers. So, it was a perfect match for the series.
Netflix picked up the first three seasons and announced it would launch new ones. Eventually,
Netflix canceled the series too, though the streamer's reasons are still unknown.
At least it gave the team behind Longmire the ability to finish
their series with a proper finale in season 6.
Jacob Nighthorse is a calculating, slippery and calm villain throughout the Longmire TV series.
Even his rise in the tribal committee can be traced to a murder early on in the series. Yet,
Nighthorse doesn't appear in any of the Longmire books.
Nighthorse is the most unpredictable and dynamic character in the TV series.
A businessman and casino owner, he's often an enemy of the Absaroka Sheriff's department,
and at times even an enemy of his own tribal law enforcement. But then, he'll testify on
Walt's behalf or support Cady Longmire's effort to become a lawyer for the tribe.
The performance in the series by actor A Martinez is so compelling that his name
ended up inspiring a character in the Longmire novel Depth of Winter, Dr. Adan Martinez.
While the character is a great show of appreciation to Nighthorse and A Martinez,
this new doctor can't compare to Nighthorse for impact on the series and Longmire's life.
There have been many changes from the books to the television series,
but this one adds texture to the mythology of Walt Longmire.
Absaroka County doesn't exist in Wyoming. Craig Johnson, the novelist who created
Absaroka County in his Longmire book series, settled down in Ucross, Wyoming, after years of
traveling around the country. However, Johnson has said that the basis for the town of Durant
is Buffalo, Wyoming, and Buffalo is the seat of Johnson County. So it would seem
Absaroka County is based on the real Johnson County. But would Walt Longmire stop there?
No. He'd look at the fact that the Wyoming counties named after mountain ranges,
such as Teton and Uinta, have part or all of that range in it. The Absaroka Mountains run
just east of Yellowstone and the Tetons and extend down to the Wind River Range.
In the episode called "Population 25," Vic Moretti's husband,
Sean, says they're five hours from Jackson Hole. The combination of the distance from
Jackson as well as the location of the range leads to Durant being near Cody,
Wyoming, or possibly Thermopolis, the seat of Hot Springs County.
On a map seen in the sheriff's office, however,
the location for Durant is right where the real-world Sheridan is.
Where is this Absaroka then? That's a mystery fit for Walt Longmire himself.
Buffalo, Wyoming, gets the credit for being the real-life Durant because Johnson said
the town's layout and buildings served as inspiration while writing the books. And
it makes sense given that the town only had a county sheriff and his team of deputies.
So, there's a Longmire festival in Buffalo, Wyoming. Longmire Days
features events inspired by the book and TV series as well as interactions with the cast and crew.
Some of the highlights include talks with Robert Taylor and Craig Johnson,
a horseback ride with some of the actors, a softball game, and an auction.
There's even a chance to grab a drink at the Red Pony and in the past they've had
events like a talk from the "Two Henrys" in the show. That event happened during a Longmire Days
festival when the organizers held a talk with Lou Diamond Phillips, who plays Henry in the series.
"It is a beautiful day at the Red Pony and continual soiree. This is Henry. "
Robert Taylor, who plays Sheriff Walt Longmire, is another Australian actor who excels at playing an
American tough. Show co-creator John Coveny said in an interview with AssignmentX that,
"[Their] character combination for Walt was Harrison Ford, Clint Eastwood, and Steve McQueen."
Coveny went on to explain that they found that all in Robert Taylor.
For his part, Taylor said to Front Row Features the role needed a quote,
"quietness of soulfulness" that isn't often seen anymore. He added,
"You would see it in actors like Gary Cooper and Clint Eastwood,
but I didn't base my character on any of those guys."
While Robert Taylor may not have purposely channeled personality traits from all those
legendary cinematic actors, they seem to fit him like a pair of well-broken-in cowboy boots.
Robert Taylor has been kicking around Hollywood for years but his most popular and
longest-running role is playing Sheriff Walt Longmire. However, the role of Walt Longmire
almost went to Coach Taylor, or more specifically the actor who played him, Kyle Chandler.
Chandler's turn as the coach on the NBC show Friday Night Lights brought him a
lot of industry buzz. He went on to other roles in many acclaimed movies, such as Argo,
Zero Dark Thirty, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Manchester by the Sea.
While Chandler's early career included a country movie, the actor himself is a
bit of a joker and might've brought some of the levity to the series that Longmire
carries through the book series. As he's matured, Chandler has also adopted a bit
of the roguish tough cowboy look that would've fit the sheriff we all know.
Executive producer Hunt Baldwin grew up in Chicago and worked in advertising for many years.
His parents moved to Wyoming and that bold move inspired him to eventually leave his
safe existence and move to Los Angeles to become a full-time writer. There he
worked hard for many years before eventually fulfilling his dream,
working with his writing partner John Coveny on their series, The Closer.
Baldwin and Coveny are both represented by the same agent at talent agency CAA,
and it was that shared connection at CAA that gave rise to Longmire.
According to Coveny, they had talked to their agent over the years about wanting to do a
modern western. Coveny mentioned that he had been a big fan of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Their agent then mentioned that CAA also happened to be representing an
author named Craig Johnson who'd written a series of modern day westerns centering on a
cowboy sheriff. According to Coveny, they read The Cold Dish and said,
"About ten pages in we knew it was something we wanted to develop."
Baldwin and Coveny's experience working together on LAPD police procedural The
Closer was a big help when they began developing Longmire. They still needed an executive producer
with experience running a show, though. Luckily, while at The Closer, they met and worked closely
with producer Greer Shephard. So they set up a meeting with her to discuss this new project.
Greer is a TV veteran. She produced her first series in 1997, Nothing Sacred. One of her
first big hits as an executive producer was Nip/Tuck in 2003. She was the perfect
person to shepherd two first-time creators through a decidedly unique police procedural.
According to Baldwin and Coveny's interview with AssignmentX, it took about three years from that
first sit-down to Longmire eventually premiering on A&E. It quickly became a relationship made in
TV heaven. In fact, Shephard mentioned in a 2012 interview with The Hollywood Reporter that if she
could add any writer to her staff, she would, quote, "clone Hunt Baldwin and John Coveny."
There are many differences between Craig Johnson's Longmire books and
Baldwin and Shephard's Longmire TV series. And while the book plots inspire the storylines,
the series has created many new stories.
In the books, Absaroka County only had five murders in 24 years,
yet police procedurals on TV tend to have lots of murders because it makes
for very compelling television. In Longmire, there's a new murder almost every episode.
Also in the books, Walt Longmire's wife isn't murdered, but instead dies of cancer.
His wife's murder in the TV series is a central
plot point in the series. But one of the largest differences is Longmire himself.
In the books, Walt Longmire is witty. Many would say he's wryly humorous. In fact, the books are
often praised for their humor. But Robert Taylor plays Sheriff Walt Longmire straight, almost
to a fault. The only comedy we see from TV Walt Longmire is when he makes social or technological
faux pas, a humor generated from everybody else's reactions to his unwillingness to embrace the
modern world. In the few moments when Walt says something funny, he doesn't seem to realize it.
There are many peculiarities that make Longmire and its protagonist so memorable. The fact Walt
doesn't have a cellphone, nor does he ever use gloves at crime scenes,
are just two. But one of the most well-noted ticks is Walt Longmire's devotion to Rainier beer.
Rainier is a cheap beer that isn't found all over, comparable in price to PBR,
and also owned by Pabst Brewing Company. In an interview with the Casper Star Tribune,
Johnson explains he was surprised by how Longmire has impacted Rainier beer. Johnson said,
"I figured Walt's not a blueberry, microbrew kind of guy."
Johnson also charges one very inexpensive and unique item
for speaking at any and all Wyoming libraries — a six-pack of Rainier.
There's one more connection, though. The Longmire Historic District in Washington is the location
of Mount Rainier National Park. So perhaps that Longmire-Rainier connection may have influenced
Johnson in naming his famous sheriff. There are no confirmed statements that say Walt's last name was
inspired by his favorite beer. So this might just be another mystery for Walt Longmire. But, when it
comes to tying together supposed coincidences to suss out the truth, there's nobody better.
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