Jericho, Kansas

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The skyline of Jericho, the mushroom cloud over Denver in the background

Jericho, Kansas is the fictional town for the setting of the CBS TV series Jericho, located to the east of Denver, Colorado, believed to be located very close to the Colorado border. Parts of the show were filmed in the real Kansas town of North Lawrence, which was temporarily renamed Jericho for a day during filming. The pilot episode was filmed on location in Fillmore, California, while the sets for the town of Jericho were built at a studio in Van Nuys, California.

[edit] Problems with the setting

The show depicts the area to have rolling hills, trees, and even a salt mine. However, the area in Kansas north of I-70 in the northwest corner is flat farmland. There are very few trees, hills, and no salt mines. The Kansas salt mines are located in south-central part of the state near Hutchinson, Kansas.
In the first episode, Jake sees the mushroom cloud while looking over mountainous terrain a short drive from Jericho. Mountains are not visible even from the Kansas/Colorado border. In fact, they are not clearly visible until one is within 60-90 miles from Denver, and only then in clear weather.
In the third episode, the Mayor mentions that Goodland (a town to the southwest of Jericho) has a National Guard unit and alluded that they might have had the tanks seen driving down the interstate. While Goodland, Kansas is the actual home to a National Guard unit, it is a small maintenance company and would not have tanks.
Since the Smokey Hill River does exist, the Smokey Hill Bridge mentioned in the third episode could possibly exist, but it would lie at least a 90 minute drive south of Jericho, and that would not fit into the timeframe shown in the show. The third episode depicts airliners landing on the highway near the Smokey Hill Bridge. In actuality, all the highways that cross the Smokey Hill River would be two lanes and too narrow to land large aircraft on. Pilots of large aircraft would have glided north and attempted to land on Interstate 70, or at the very least, in a field. But it is possible that this was a last resort due to a lack of fuel.
Although it isn't a matter of geography, there's a demographic problem with Jericho: There are no small towns in western Kansas that have grown from 1,000 to 5,000 in population in the past 50 years. There are quite a lot that have done the reverse.

The actual location of Jericho would best be represented by Oakley, Kansas, which is at the intersection of I-70, US 40, and US 83. Goodland is about 50 miles to the north and west of Oakley, although this would still contradict information given in the show.