The Contrabando is a vacant and artificial

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

used as a filming location within the

Big Bend Ranch State Park Big Bend Ranch State Park is a state park located on the Rio Grande in Brewster and Presidio counties, Texas. It is the largest state park in Texas. The closest major town is Presidio, Texas. The state park's head office is located in Lajitas, ...

, west of

Lajitas, Texas Lajitas is an unincorporated community in Brewster County, Texas, United States, near the Big Bend National Park. According to the ''Handbook of Texas'', the community had a population of 75 in 2010. History The settlement is named after the ...

, on the

Texas State Highway 170 State Highway 170 (SH 170), also known as the Alliance Gateway Freeway, is a Texas state highway in the northern suburbs of Fort Worth in the Alliance area. The highway was designated in 1988. History Previous route A previous route ...

The Contrabando consists of an original adobe building called 'La Casita' and several later additions that became part of the Contrabando during its use as a

movie set Set construction is the process undertaken by a construction manager to build full-scale scenery, as specified by a production designer or art director working in collaboration with the director of a production to create a set for a theatri ...

. The movie set was constructed in 1985 for the Roy Clark film ''Uphill all the Way''. The site has been used as a set for nine movies including

John Sayles John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and novelist. He is known for writing and directing the films '' The Brother from Another Planet'' (1984), '' Matewan'' (1987), ...

' 1996 movie '' Lone Star''; as well as ''Dead Man's Walk'' and '' Streets of Laredo'', which were part of the ''

Lonesome Dove ''Lonesome Dove'' is a 1985 Western novel by American writer Larry McMurtry. It is the first published book of the ''Lonesome Dove'' series and the third installment in the series chronologically. It was a bestseller and won the 1986 Pulit ...

miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...

based upon the

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

Larry McMurtry Larry Jeff McMurtry (June 3, 1936March 25, 2021) was an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas.

. In September 2008, heavy rains and flooding occurred in

Ojinaga Ojinaga (Manuel Ojinaga) is a town and seat of the Ojinaga (municipality), municipality of Ojinaga, in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua. As of 2015, the town had a total population of 28,040. It is a rural border town ...

, Mexico. The rain, and the ensuing release of water from local flood control structures, caused widespread flooding, and resulted in damage to the movie set buildings at the Contrabando. The original Casita was not damaged. In 2015, the buildings, except for the Casita, were removed for safety reasons.

References

External links

The location pictured in 2014
at the Library of Congress
Flickr Photos of the Contrabando

YouTube Video of the Contrabando
{{coord, 29.2877, -103.8969, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-TX, display=title Ghost towns in West Texas Lonesome Dove series