Production for the “Yellowstone” prequel “1923” has ramped up in western Montana with crew and stars spotted at multiple locations in recent weeks.
Crews wrapped up shooting at the historic Daly Mansion in Hamilton this week, and have also been seen at locations in Milltown recently.
The old Harold’s Club building, now Milltown Moose, previously commemorated in the 1973 poem “The Milltown Union Bar”by author Richard Hugo, will soon be immortalized as Hubik’s Filling Station in “1923,” starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren as Jacob and Cara Dutton.
Fall turned to winter and night into day when Hollywood came to Milltown as crews busily worked transforming the modest blue-collar bar lining the railroad tracks and a nearby former log yard into movie sets for the Taylor Sheridan Western series.
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Crews worked for days prior to filming, building props and preparing the site. The day of shooting, many neighborhood locals came out into their yards to watch as crews turned Harold’s into Hubik’s, complete with vintage trucks and gas pumps out front. Once the props were in place, the crew got to work changing the seasons. Spaying a nontoxic fake snow mixture made of cellulose, they created a convincing winter scene despite the sunny 65 degree fall weather.
“It looked better,” Milltown resident Billy Izzard said of the aging bar.
“I was sad that they took some of the artwork off of the bar,” he said of the signs the crew painted onto the building to prepare it for filming. “It was kind of nice. I watched that guy painting, he did the lettering, he did all that freehand with his brush.”
Izzard and his wife have lived in their Milltown home directly across the road from the bar for about 20 years. His house was surrounded by production trucks, with cables running through the yard late into the night during shooting.
“I'll be honest, it was kind of interesting,” Izzard said. “It wasn't really like it was an imposition or anything. It was amazing to see what all they had done… They had cables all the way around and down through my yard, and guys checking them to make sure that it was all dialed in… and all the people working on it was just, it was delightful… everybody was good, they really were nice.”
Izzard said he went outside and watched through the fence that night while they were filming and was “really impressed.”
“It actually looked like it was snowing,” he said. “It was interesting how much energy goes into just one scene.”
The next night, residents watched with curiosity from the nearby footbridge spanning the Blackfoot River as banks of lights lit up the mountainside behind the KettleHouse Amphitheater in Bonner, as if it were daytime in the middle of the night.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” one passerby said.
Famed actor Harrison Ford has been spotted at multiple locations in Missoula during filming, even stopping to snap a selfie with employees at the Good Food Store. No sightings of Dame Helen Mirren have been reported.
Crews have also been busy filming in the Bitterroot Valley at the Daly Mansion in Hamilton recently. There is no word what part the historic local landmark will play in the production, but it’s no surprise to see the 24,000-square-foot Georgian-Revival-style mansion, once owned by Montana’s Copper King Marcus Daly, used in film.
Bitterroot Valley residents are no strangers to “Yellowstone” film crews, as the Chief Joseph Ranch in nearby Darby has doubled as the Yellowstone Ranch on the hit TV show, starring Kevin Costner as John Dutton, since the series inception. Series spin-offs have only increased production in Montana, with filming of “1923” also taking place in Butte, Malta and Whitehall in the past. Production is expected to return to Butte, where several scenes were filmed in the first season, though filming has also been taking place in Austin, Texas, recently.
A date for the season two return of “1923” has yet to be announced.
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