Other locals have noted that “Yellowstone” skips out on the hard winters of Montana, which are rarely depicted at all in the hit series. “They’re not showing the hard days when it’s below zero and the calves are frozen,” local Hillary Folkvord said. She wasn’t completely critical of the series, though. “I think the show has been good for us. It shows how beautiful Montana is,” she said. “And we hope to preserve that as stewards. That’s really important to us.”
On the other hand, since the show premiered back in 2018, tourists have begun flocking to the state of Montana, and not just to see the national park from which the Paramount series takes its name. “It’s absolutely a welcome surprise,” said the Nine Quarter Circle Ranch’s co-owner Sally Kelsey. “Every week or so, someone tells us: We decided to look into dude ranches because of the show ‘Yellowstone.'”
The University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research and its Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research also noted the growth that “Yellowstone” has had on the state in a joint study they undertook about how the show affects tourism. Their findings revealed that the 4th season of the series “ultimately supported 527 additional jobs in the state, $25.3 million in annual personal income, and $10.4 million in state tax and non-tax revenues.”
