The movie High Plains Drifter was primarily filmed near Mono Lake in Mono County, California. The fictitious town of Lago was built from the ground up on the southern shore of Mono Lake, featuring fully constructed buildings like houses, a church, and a two-story hotel to allow both interior and exterior filming. Besides Mono Lake, other filming locations included areas in California such as Sierra Nevada Mountains and Inyo National Forest, as well as Winnemucca Lake in Nevada. The town set was eventually burnt down after filming was completed. Mono Lake's unique rocky and barren landscape was chosen to give the film a more eerie and alien atmosphere, distinct from the actual High Plains region.
