Bordertown

Bordertown location

Summary

Bordertown is a western-style outside set that was built in a rural area for filming of the television series Bordertown, which aired in 1989-91. The set includes a classic western street, a large barn, a church, a windmill, a mine entrance, a pond, and other standalone buildings.

Bordertown was used for filming two Stargate SG-1 episodes, 3.17 "A Hundred Days" and 5.07 "Beast of Burden". It was intended to be used also for the Atlantis episode 3.13 "Irresponsible", but when the production went to survey the site, they found it was so dilapidated as to be unsafe for filming. This was borne out by a visit in April 2009 as part of a filming locations bus tour; the town is indeed in a state of disrepair. However, the buildings are still very recognizable from the show, for 5.07 "Beast of Burden" in particular.

Location

Bordertown is located down an unpaved road across the river from Port Coquitlam. It's located behind a locked gate, so the location owners must be contacted for entry. The site is truly isolated; there are no developments nearby, but rather some farm lands, and even those are not visible from the set.

The town has one main street, lined on either side with classic western buildings, including a white steeple church, a telegraph office, some houses, and a hotel/saloon. Off to the right is a mine entrance with a sluice. At the far end of the road is a large barn, and to the right of that a small windmill or weather vane beside is a small pond.

In 3.17 "A Hundred Days," the buildings are hard to recognize as being Bordertown. They must have been dressed by the production to have the thatched roofs and different fasciae, to represent something more primitive than western. In 5.07 "Beast of Burden" the scenes are much easier to compare to the actual location. Burrock sells his Unas slaves on the main street and stands near the rear side of the barn after talking to O'Neill and Daniel. O'Neill and Daniel walk up the street toward the church, although its steeple is not visible in the frame. The windmill is prominent in the scene where Carter and Teal'c set off explosives to free O'Neill and Daniel. The cells where the Unas, O'Neill, and Daniel are kept are clearly the inside of the barn, only with bars added. The most notable difference is that the site has degraded so much since that Season five episode that it isn't structurally usable anymore.

Screencaps

3.17 Edora village	3.17 inside village	3.17 inside village
5.07 Burrock's village	Approaching church	Rear of barn
Barn and windmill	Cells inside barn	Cells inside barn