Taylor Sheridan's The Madison follows a wealthy New York family played by Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell as they relocate to Montana to rebuild their lives after a tragedy. But while the story is set in the Madison River Valley, the production spent surprisingly little time in the state whose name is on the poster — a chunk of it was shot in Texas.

The show's centrepiece ranch, the fictional Clyburn Ranch, is the very real KG Ranch near Three Forks, Montana. Founded in 1978, it spans a hefty 26,000 acres of varied terrain and runs a herd of around 1,200 Angus cattle, which explains the convincingly sprawling ranchland on screen.

Montana supplies most of the outdoor drama. The riverside fishing scenes, framed by tall rock walls, appear to have been shot in Gallatin Canyon along US-191 between Bozeman and Big Sky, where the Gallatin River cuts between Madison Group limestone cliffs — prime trout-fishing territory in its own right. The town of Ennis, about 50 miles south of Bozeman, doubles for the show's streets in the episode "Let the Land Hold Me", its Main Street lined with rustic Western buildings. And the airport scene was filmed at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport in Belgrade, Montana's busiest air hub, standing in for Idaho Falls.

Here's the twist: the "New York" scenes are mostly Texas. Fort Worth, which also doubled as a location for Sheridan's Landman, does the heavy lifting. The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth — a 2002 concrete building designed by Tadao Ando — plays the Washington Heights Women's Center. The restaurant interiors belong to Clay Pigeon, the Wicked Butcher in Sundance Square's historic Sinclair Hotel, and a coffee shop in Fort Worth's Southside. Even an oil-and-gas office downtown, MorningStar Partners, shows up as the series' office building, with an arrest scene shot at 7th and Taylor Streets. The only sequences actually filmed in Manhattan are the robbery scene on 5th Avenue near Madison Square Park, with the cab ride staged around the corner on West 28th Street.

For travellers, this is a ready-made itinerary. Montana offers the landscapes that make the show feel vast — fly-fishing in Gallatin Canyon, a wander through Ennis, or a base in Bozeman with Yellowstone and Big Sky within driving distance. Fort Worth rewards fans too: you can eat in the actual restaurants that played New York dining spots and admire the Ando museum without a film-studio pass.

If the show is your excuse to plan a trip, the Montana side is the one worth prioritising. Three Forks sits at the headwaters of the Missouri, the canyon runs straight along a scenic highway, and Bozeman's airport makes the whole valley easy to reach. Just don't expect to book a room at the Clyburn Ranch — the KG is a working cattle operation, not a guest lodge.

Location details sourced from Atlas of Wonders.