When shows are focused on a place, such as the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, it’s important to keep in mind that while Montana is, in theory, a real place, the characters and situations that happen in Yellowstone are not. You wouldn’t go to a fancy Chicago restaurant hoping to meet Carmy or head to an Italian resort to get a glimpse of The White Lotus hotel, would you? No, because those places aren’t real (Chicago might be, but who knows for sure?). But Yellowstone fans are an entirely different type of person: they wear cowboy hats and don’t mess around.
Locals in Bozeman, Montana claim that the show’s popularity has been causing fans to flock to the city, which is becoming a headache for anyone who actually owns a real ranch. Bozeman Police Chief Jim Velkamp told Daily Mail that the influx of out-of-towners has actually had a negative impact on the city. “I think overall for us specifically with the city of Bozeman it’s just the growth and the challenges related to growth … that is our biggest challenge,’ Velkamp said. “Our city has grown so fast. Bozeman wasn’t literally on the map, now it’s a well-known place.”
Velkamp said that the show definitely helped make Bozeman a desirable destination, which has its drawbacks. “I can’t blame one single factor, I certainly can’t attribute it all to the show Yellowstone, but we hear it routinely,” he continued. “The fact that our population is going up so fast means the numbers of crimes are going up fast. We simply need more capacity and bandwidth to keep up with those numbers of crimes even if the ratio, our crime rate, is staying the same and only going up slowly.”
The impact can even be seen on the other side of the law. “We even hear it from candidates for the police department. They looked up Bozeman after watching the show Yellowstone and thought ‘Wow that’s a pretty cool place,’ and so they inquire about working here,” He said. He did not reveal if that has actually worked for anyone looking to become a Montana cop.
Over the last 10 years, the population in Bozeman has jumped from 41K to 56K. Sure, we can’t blame Kevin Costner because he’s already over the whole thing. But anyone who goes to Montana looking to meet John Dutton will be very disappointed when they don’t see him…because he’s not real. Sorry!
