The original 1969 True Grit with John Wayne was filmed primarily in southwestern Colorado, with some key scenes shot in California.

Main filming locations

  • Southwestern Colorado (main base)
    • Ouray County in the San Juan Mountains served as the main location, especially around the town of Ridgway, Colorado , which was transformed into the 1880s town of Fort Smith, Arkansas.
* Areas near Owl Creek Pass, Chimney Rock, and Courthouse Mountain provided the backdrop for several outdoor sequences and the famous final showdown meadow.
  • Ridgway as Fort Smith
    • The production rebuilt Ridgway’s center as Fort Smith, including facades and a gallows for “Hanging Judge” Parker’s scenes.
* Surrounding ranchland near Last Dollar Road and local highways doubled for frontier trails and ranch exteriors.

Other significant spots

  • Hot Creek, near Mammoth Lakes, California
    • Creekside scenes such as the dugout, the shootout with Quincy and Moon, and Rooster carrying Mattie after the snakebite were filmed at Hot Creek on the east side of the Sierra Nevada, near Mammoth Lakes.
* Mount Morrison and Laurel Mountain form the recognizable mountainous backdrop in these sequences.
  • Camp Bird Mine area, near Ouray, Colorado
    • The rattlesnake pit and Ned Pepper’s hideout were staged on private property near the historic Camp Bird Mine , a few miles southwest of Ouray.
* This area’s rugged terrain provided the canyon and cave atmosphere for the outlaw hideout scenes.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.