Netflix recently released the Ransom Canyon TV series, based on the first of eight books written by New York Times bestselling author Jodi Thomas. A writer on their website explained that the town is fictional, saying: “Ransom Canyon might be an incorporated piece of land, but there’s no town there.” As a long-time resident, I found this dismaying, as if someone had just told me I was adopted.
True, Ransom Canyon looks nothing like the wide-open prairie shown in the series, which was filmed around Las Vegas, New Mexico, but it is a real town. In depicting it as a sprawling ranch, the series’ producers followed Thomas’s book. She used the name–which you have to admit is pretty darn poetic—but not the real place. Having grown up around Amarillo, she imbues her work with authentic West Texas flavor and style.
So what’s in that “incorporated piece of land” mentioned in the article, undoubtedly by someone from Hollywood who didn’t own a map? Located east of the Lubbock’s Loop 289 with a population of 1,189, Ransom Canyon boasts a city hall, a POA pool, two churches, a small police force, and volunteer fire and EMS. The Ranch House serves as both a community center and a rentable venue. There isn’t a school, so students attend classes at Roosevelt, Slaton, or Lubbock. Despite a general belief among many Lubbockites, Ransom is not far from the city. I can leave my house and be at Indiana Avenue and the South Loop in just under 20 minutes – a commute many in Dallas would envy.
The canyon got its name because Native Americans would bring hostages there to ransom them back to their families. The vision of a developer in the 1970s, it has gradually grown to fill the canyon and beyond, except for the Meadow, an area on the lake’s west side officially preserved from development.
Adjacent to Buffalo Springs Lake, and fed by its waters, Ransom is a small oasis in the midst of the plains. The first time I drove there was at night to look at Christmas nights, which always present a beautiful display. Because the town intentionally eschews street lights to maintain a country feel, I quickly became lost. Where in West Texas does the landscape go up and down like that?
Or where, for that matter, can I look out my window and see deer grazing in my backyard? Or sit on my back porch and hear finches, robins, blue jays, and cardinals singing from the trees? Canada geese in the winter; osprey, nighthawks, even a small flock of pelicans in the summer. Armadillos, opossums, foxes—I had no idea before I moved here that a small-but-beautiful lake could attract this much wildlife in West Texas.
So I’m pretty sure Ransom Canyon is real. Either that, or I’m living a dream.
Ransom Canyon resident James Stoddard’s fiction has been published by Warner Books and several national science fiction magazines. He previously taught Sound Recording at South Plains College. His latest novel, Liberty Bell and the Last American, is a humorous and poignant celebration of America and our Constitution.