Where was Ransom Canyon filmed? The Texas ranch country was recreated in Minka Kelly's own hometown
Ransom Canyon is set in Texas Hill Country, but Netflix shot the series in New Mexico — primarily in and around Albuquerque, the city where star Minka Kelly grew up. A rundown of the real ranches, lavender farms, and turn-of-the-century towns standing in for Texas, plus what the production meant for the state and for its leading lady.
Ransom Canyon, the Netflix western romance that premiered on 17 April 2025, is set in Texas Hill Country — and there is a real Ransom Canyon in Lubbock County, Texas. The show never went near it. The series, based on Jodi Thomas's novels and created by April Blair, was filmed almost entirely in New Mexico.
That turned out to matter a great deal to one of its stars. Minka Kelly, who plays dance-hall owner Quinn O'Grady opposite Josh Duhamel's rancher Staten Kirkland, grew up in Albuquerque — the production's home base.
"It just made me see Albuquerque with new eyes," Kelly told Netflix's Tudum, adding that she came to appreciate beauty she'd never registered as a kid there.
She also pointed out the overlap with her character: Quinn is a woman who left for New York and got pulled back to her hometown. Kelly, filming a Netflix lead in hers, didn't have to reach far.
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Why New Mexico plays Texas
Practicality, mostly. Netflix has owned Albuquerque Studios since October 2018, and the production was based there, with filming announced to run from February through June. Blair has argued the swap barely shows: she told Tudum that you can literally see Texas from some of the ranches used, and that the mood and topography match. For the old-town look, the production leaned on Las Vegas, New Mexico — a former mining town near the Texas border whose turn-of-the-century storefronts read convincingly as vintage Texas.
The state was happy to have them. New Mexico Film Office director Amber Dodson noted at the announcement:
"This single film will employ 700 New Mexicans" — a figure that broke down to roughly 380 crew members, 300 background actors, and 40 principal actors.
The locations you can actually visit
- Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm, Albuquerque — hosted the episode 2 dinner party; its lavender fields fit a show whose heroine runs a lavender farm.
- Valley High School, Albuquerque's North Valley — stood in for Ransom Canyon High.
- The Johnson Center, University of New Mexico — played the University of Texas at Austin in episode 8.
- Southwest Event Center, Los Lunas — the rodeo scene in episode 3.
- Bonanza Creek Ranch, Santa Fe — provided one of the series' ranch houses.
- Downtown Las Vegas, New Mexico — including nighttime shots at the historic Emmanuel Rosenwald Building.
Did season 2 stay put?
It did. The second season — released in July 2026, with Patricia Clarkson joining as Quinn's mother Claire — went back into production at Netflix Studios Albuquerque in 2025. Blair told Deadline the team couldn't wait to "turn up the steam, the drama … and the romance."
So the Texas of Ransom Canyon remains, for all practical purposes, a New Mexico production — anchored in the one city its female lead knows better than anyone on the call sheet.
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