Paramount Ranch Recreation Area in Agoura
The Woolsey Fire in November 2018 destroyed the historic structures at Paramount Ranch described below. However, there is a plan to rebuild four of the structures in 2023-2024. More information at www.nps.gov/samo/learn/historyculture/paramount-past-present-and-future.htm.
Paramount Ranch Western Town Aerial View (Courtesy NPS)
Paramount Ranch is located in Agoura off of Cornell Road, between Kanan Road and Mulholland. Click here for a map in a pdf file on the National Park Service website.
Paramount Pictures originally purchased 2,700 acres here for use as a "movie ranch" in 1927 and since then, hundreds of movies and TV shows have been filmed there. A permanent western town was built on the site in the early 1950s using old Paramount Pictures props. Before the Woolsey Fire of 2018, you could walk freely around these old sets.
Before the Woolsey Fire of November 2018.
The Western Town sign and bridge is still there but most everything surrounding it is burnt after the Woolsey Fire of November 2018.
Western Town at Paramount Ranch destroyed in the Woolsey Fire.
A beacon of hope. Two structures were unharmed in the Woolsey Fire - this church building seen in the TV series “Westworld” and the train station.
A list of movies filmed at Paramount Ranch is here. These include films like The Last Outlaw (Gary Cooper), The Virginian (Gary Cooper), Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn (Jackie Coogan), Million Dollar Legs (W.C. Fields), Adventures of Marco Polo, Remember the Night (Barbara Stanwyck) and many more. From 1992 to 1997, the TV show, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (featuring Jane Seymour) was filmed there.
Beyond the western town, there are plenty of hiking trails at the park. More information at www.nps.gov/samo/planyourvisit/paramountranch.htm or call the NPS at 805.370.2301.