Remnants of 'True Grit' remain in Granger

Granger, Texas, is Fort Smith, Arkansas, in the Coen brothers' True Grit. I took a lot of photos of the set during its formation and right up until filming. (You can also find photos of the filming on my site if you look around. Just do a search for "Granger.")Today, I again visited the town to see what remnants of the filming remain and to provide a bookend to earlier photos. You can see some of the Old West signage remains on the mostly vacant buildings in the one block of downtown Granger. Buildings constructed specifically for the film are gone--most were only facades.

Take a look and compare to earlier photos here that were taken right before filming began.


Signs for the undertaker remain on this building, which is quite vacant.


This funky shop looks as out of place in modern-day Granger as it would in the film.


More of the signage from the film. Granger's red brick was covered with dirt for the filming and is now returned to its original state.


This bank is next door to where the film's gallows were.


The Granger post office was hidden behind a facade during filming, though customers were led into it by crew to do business during filming.


You can see why the filmmakers liked the look of the wide road.


More signage remaining from the shoot.


This mural was painted over the filming in such a manner that they could restore it to its original look. Nice trick!


A funky antique store was in the thick of things during filming when the sign outside read "post office."


A church is near the corner where antique wagons were stored for the shoot.


Some more film signage.

True Grit set in Granger grows as start date nears

UPDATE: See newer pix here.

I took another quick peek at the True Grit set in Fort Smith, ur, Granger today. One week after my last visit (when I thought it was pretty much complete) there are lots of new buildings that have been constructed--they are the smaller, free-standing structures you'll see here. I also noted a woman guarding what appears to be a corral being built (see second photo). Click on the photos to enlarge, then you'll be able to read some of the new signage. You can compare these to photos I took only a week ago.

According to this article, Granger's red brick road will be covered in a deep layer of dirt. The word I'm getting is the start of filming has been pushed back until at least April 26. Welcome back to Texas, Joel and Ethan Coen.