Stories from the set

The series featured several actors who appeared in Taylor Sheridan's thriller Wind River (2016). These are Kelsey Asbille, Gerald Tokala Clifford, Ian Bohen, Gil Birmingham, Hugh Dillon, James Jordan, Gabe Casdorph, and Mason D. Davis. Taylor Sheridan was the creator of the series Yellowstone, one of the screenwriters, and he also sometimes served as director.

When it first became known that Kelsey Asbille would play the wife of the main character, a woman from one of the Native American tribes, it caused controversy. Kelsey Asbille (full name Kelsey Asbille Chow) has mixed Chinese-American heritage; she herself claimed to be of Cherokee descent, but representatives of the tribe officially refuted this claim. Moreover, after the casting for the television series Yellowstone, prominent representatives of Native American tribes called for a boycott of the project and issued an appeal to all actors of Native American descent not to appear in the series.

For the filming, screenwriter, director, and producer Taylor Sheridan brought his own horses from Wyoming.

The races shown in the series have been held regularly in Sheridan, Wyoming, since 1931. The tradition began in the midst of the Great Depression. It symbolizes how Indian tribes stole horses from one another during periods of intertribal wars.

Filming for the first season of the series began in August 2017, and production continued until the end of December 2017.

Filming began on a large ranch near the town of Darby in Montana, where John Dutton's house is located according to the plot. Numerous locations in Utah and Montana were subsequently used. Three soundstages at Utah Film Studios in Park City, Utah, were also used.