FX · six seasons · 2010–2015 · and City Primeval, 2023
From Elmore Leonard’s story Fire in the Hole. Taped up top: Timothy Olyphant, Graham Yost and Elmore Leonard at the Peabody Awards, New York, May 2011 (Anders Krusberg / Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0).
A deputy U.S. marshal is sent home to Harlan County, Kentucky. The show almost never went there. Harlan was a river town in Pennsylvania, then a hill hamlet north of Los Angeles; Detroit, years later, was a studio in Chicago. One real bridge links the lot.
Raylan and Boyd
Justified is set in eastern Kentucky, above all Harlan County, where Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens is sent back to work in his home town.
Raylan Givens is Elmore Leonard’s. The series is credited to his short story Fire in the Hole, and Leonard was an executive producer. Justified ran for six seasons and 78 episodes, from 16 March 2010 to 14 April 2015.
It won two Emmys, for Margo Martindale as Mags Bennett and Jeremy Davies as Dickie Bennett.
Both photographs: the Television Academy’s evening with Justified, Hollywood, 19 March 2014, during the fifth season (Mingle Media TV, CC BY-SA 2.0).
Layton Road, Fayette County
Layton Road reaches a one-lane bridge through a one-lane tunnel, between Perryopolis and Layton. The show used it twice. Flag it yourself: turn a paddle to SLOW and that bank’s cars cross one at a time. West-bank cars are parts Kentucky played in the show and arrive as the place that really played them; east-bank cars are the real Kentucky and the man who wrote it. Turn both to SLOW and see what a one-lane bridge does.
West bank · Kentucky as written
East bank · the real Kentucky and the writer
Both paddles show STOP. Turn one to SLOW.
0 crossings · 0 hold-ups · 0 of 10 places reached
Nothing has crossed yet.
Ten cars, ten real places. The far bank tells you where each one really was.
Downtown Pittsburgh
Live marketplace results for walks of downtown Pittsburgh, where the convention centre played an airport and the arena a courthouse. Check each route.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursHarlan, Kentucky
The county tourism site’s lodging list for the real Harlan, the town the show was set in but did not film. Pictured: downtown Harlan, 2015.
See lodging
Thirteen years apart
2009The pilot, Fire in the Hole, used the Layton Bridge and Tunnel.
2022In June 2022 the crew came back to the same bridge and tunnel for Justified: City Primeval.
For the shoot, traffic on Layton Road was held on both sides of the bridge for five minutes or less at a time, between 10am and 2pm. The volunteer fire department parked a truck at each end.
The Silence of the Lambs, Sweet Girl and American Rust filmed in the same area. Pictured: Layton Road at the tunnel, 2009 (VitaleBaby, public domain).
A public road. The tunnel and bridge are one lane each: wait your turn, and never stop on the bridge.
Era by era
The pilot, Fire in the Hole, was shot in and around Pittsburgh and in Kittanning and Washington, Pennsylvania. Later episodes were made in California. Production designer Dave Blass called Green Valley the show’s Californian Harlan.
Pilot, aired 16 March 2010
Kittanning
The pilot shoots in Kittanning, playing Harlan.
Pilot
Washington
A newspaper building in Washington plays Harlan’s bank.
Pilot
David L. Lawrence Convention Center
Pittsburgh’s convention centre plays a small airport.
Pilot
PPG Paints Arena
The half-built arena plays a new courthouse under construction.
Lexington, Kentucky
Live marketplace results for tours in and around Lexington, Kentucky, home of Raylan’s office in the story. Check each route.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursColumbia, South Carolina · Free, by appointment
Register, request items in advance and confirm by email; the Smith Reading Room opens 10am to 3pm, Monday to Thursday. Pictured: Thomas Cooper Library, 2011.
Plan a visitThe way home
The show was not filmed in Harlan, the county’s tourism site says: the pilot was made in Kittanning, Pennsylvania. Its previews did include short clips the crew had shot in Harlan before the pilot aired. The county’s tourism site says residents generally take the show as entertaining fiction.
Chicago Studio City is a working lot, seen from West Taylor Street only. Leonard’s archive opens by appointment.
9 places you can visit in four states, from the county the show was about to the bridge it used twice, plus a studio lot in Chicago seen from the street.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
Area reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A small county seat in the Cumberland Mountains. Main Street is public; the county’s tourism site lists trails, lodging and places to eat.
Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working federal courthouse, open Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5pm. Expect security screening; the façade is best seen from Barr Street.
Kentucky · Harlan, Harlan County, Kentucky
Justified is set in eastern Kentucky, above all Harlan County, where Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens is sent back to work in his home town.
A small county seat in the Cumberland Mountains. Main Street is public; the county’s tourism site lists trails, lodging and places to eat.
Kentucky · 101 Barr Street, downtown Lexington, Kentucky
The story’s map includes Lexington, where Raylan’s U.S. Marshals office is based.
A working federal courthouse, open Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5pm. Expect security screening; the façade is best seen from Barr Street.
Stay
The county tourism site’s own lodging list.
Harlan, Kentucky
The county tourism site’s lodging list for the real Harlan, the town the show was set in but did not film. Pictured: downtown Harlan, 2015.
See lodgingGo there
Leonard’s drafts by appointment, and tours in Pittsburgh and Lexington.
Columbia, South Carolina · Free, by appointment
Register, request items in advance and confirm by email; the Smith Reading Room opens 10am to 3pm, Monday to Thursday. Pictured: Thomas Cooper Library, 2011.
Plan a visitDowntown Pittsburgh
Live marketplace results for walks of downtown Pittsburgh, where the convention centre played an airport and the arena a courthouse. Check each route.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursLexington, Kentucky
Live marketplace results for tours in and around Lexington, Kentucky, home of Raylan’s office in the story. Check each route.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
Nothing dated for the show is listed at these places now.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
10 of 10 places · 15 of 15 stories
Harlan, Harlan County, Kentucky
Raylan Givens is posted back to the county he grew up in.
Short clips shot in Harlan reach the previews before the pilot airs.
Dave Blass visits Harlan while preparing season 2.
The writers find a pizza place with a bank vault in Harlan and borrow its name.
101 Barr Street, downtown Lexington, Kentucky
The story puts the Marshals office in Lexington, where the real eastern Kentucky headquarters sits in the federal courthouse.
Kittanning, on the Allegheny River, Armstrong County
The pilot shoots in Kittanning, playing Harlan.
Washington, Washington County, south-west of Pittsburgh
A newspaper building in Washington plays Harlan’s bank.
Fort Duquesne Boulevard, downtown Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh’s convention centre plays a small airport.
Fifth Avenue, downtown Pittsburgh
The half-built arena plays a new courthouse under construction.
Layton Road, Perry Township, Fayette County
The pilot shoots at the Layton Bridge and Tunnel.
City Primeval returns to the same bridge and tunnel, thirteen years on.
Green Valley, Los Angeles County, California
Green Valley often doubles for Harlan once the show moves west.
Near Santa Clarita, a bank turning into a pizza place becomes the Portal.
5660 West Taylor Street, Austin, Chicago
City Primeval takes the whole studio for a summer to make Detroit.
Hollings Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia
Leonard’s drafts, typed on yellow paper, go to Columbia.
Every place in Justified leads somewhere else.
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