Paramount Ranch

Paramount Ranch, once nicknamed “Western Town,” will soon be reopening for filming and events after years of recovery from the devastating Woolsey Fire of 2018. This site has been a part of Hollywood’s story since 1927, when Paramount Pictures purchased the land to use as an outdoor studio for silent films and Westerns, taking advantage of its rugged mountains, open meadows, and oak woodlands to double as everything from the American frontier to far-off lands.

Over the decades, productions such as Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, The Cisco Kid, and Westworld filmed here, and generations of visitors came to walk through sets that brought screen history to life. Paramount Ranch is unique as the only movie-making site within the National Park Service and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, preserving its place in both cultural and cinematic heritage.

After the fire destroyed the Western Town structures, SAMO Fund led a successful $1 million campaign, matched by federal funds, to jump-start rebuilding one structure. The National Park Service constructed four new structures on the historic footprints, designed with modern safety codes for fire and flexible interiors that can support both filmmaking and public gatherings.

The reopening is not a recreation of the old Western Town, but the renewal of Paramount Ranch as a living landscape—blending history, creativity, and community in the heart of the Santa Monica Mountains.