Jericho, Kansas (fictional town)
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| Region | NW Kansas |
| Population | 5000 |
| Area | N/A |
| Coordinates | 0°0′ 0 0°0′ 0 |
| Elevation | Flat |
| Founded | 1923 (City Hall inscription) |
| Website | www.cbs.com/primetime/jericho/map.shtml |
Jericho, Kansas, a fictional town, is the setting of the CBS TV series Jericho. It is described as being located east of Denver, Colorado, close to the Colorado border. Parts of the show were filmed in the real Kansas town of North Lawrence, temporarily renamed Jericho for a day during filming. The pilot episode was filmed on location in Fillmore, California, and sets for Jericho were built at a studio in Van Nuys, California.
There is an actual location in Kansas named "Jericho". It is a post office in Larabee Township, Kansas in Gove County,[1] and as such does not appear on many maps. Oakley is the closest community that matches the fictional Jericho's apparent location, but it is in Logan County.
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[edit] Problems with the setting
[edit] Geography & location
Best approximation is Mullinville, KS. The first episode shows a road sign with the following information: Jericho - 47 miles, Wichita - 196 miles, Kansas City - 362 miles. The straight-line triangulation of the distances of Wichita and Kansas City puts that scene just outside of Liberal, KS (assuming travel from Denver as indicated). This gives us an approximation, but is not convincing as it is not an efficient travel line. Taking into account that travel was from Denver, and that distances on road signs are not straight-line, puts that scene located very near Howell, KS on US-400. Given Howell, KS as the location of the scene and following an efficient route(US-400->I-35), this puts Wichita, KS 162.9 miles away(~30 mile error), Kansas City - 359.3 miles away, and Mullinville, KS - 43.8 miles.
Although the show depicts the area to have rolling hills, trees, and a salt mine, the northwest corner of Kansas is flat farmland. There are very few trees or 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 visible only in clear weather conditions within 60-90 miles from Denver.
Because the Smokey Hill River does exist, the Smokey Hill Bridge mentioned in the third episode could exist. However, it would be at least a 90-minute drive south of Jericho, and that would not fit into the timeframe of 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 are two lanes and too narrow to land large aircraft. Pilots of large aircraft would have to glide north and attempt to land on Interstate 70, or in a field.
Jericho is in the Mountain Time Zone. In the pilot a clock shows 6 o'clock shortly after the bomb in Denver went off. The Day Before establishes the bombs were to go off at 8:05 pm Eastern time during the President's address.
[edit] Population
The fictional town of Jericho has an opposite demographic trend than Kansas in general. 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 opposite.
[edit] Military presence
In the third episode, Jericho's 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.
[edit] Points of Interest
[edit] Sheriff's Station
The Jericho Sheriff's Department is located in the town hall. The sheriff's station contains an interrogation room, a holding cell, and a gun cabinet with twelve shotguns.
[edit] Town hall
Jericho's town hall is located on the end of Main Street, intersecting Spruge Lane. This two-story building was built in 1923 and houses the mayor's office, the Jericho Sheriff's Department, and a fallout shelter that can hold 300 people.
[edit] Medical Clinic
The Jericho Medical Clinic is a full-service clinic with a fallout shelter that can hold 200 people. Because the shelter was not maintained, it could not be used in episode "Fallout". The Medical Center relies on a generator that can provide power for up to four days in the event of a power failure. Since the EMP the clinic has been on emergency power due to the low levels of disel to power the generator left by the air drop. According to episode the Heart of Winter, it was not very warm at the clinic.
[edit] Gracie Leigh's supermarket
Gracie Leigh's supermarket is on Main Street in Jericho. The food in the store was used to provide food at the fallout shelters in the second episode.It has a freezer that former owner Gracie Leigh used to store valuables that were traded for food. In the third episode, Dale Turner found a train full of food that was supposed to be delivered to the store but never arrived. Mitchell Cafferty murdered Gracie Leigh, which made Dale Turner the owner of the store. Dale is very close to having to close the store due to lack of stock.
[edit] Merthy's Gas station
Merthy's Gas is owned by the Nuralco Gas Company. It has a convenience store and four gas pumps. The gas station was shown in several episodes: in the pilot, everyone was in line to get gas when the power went dead; in the fourth episode, Heather, Jake, and Stanley used the gas to refuel the generator at the clinic; in the fifth episode, the power comes on and Eric tells Jake that he sent Jimmy to handle the crowd wanting gas.
[edit] Church
The church was shown in multiple episodes. In the fourth episode, there was a service for the dead refugees from Denver. Emily sits inside of it and daydreams about her wedding day in the ninth episode. According to the map on CBS' website, the name of the church is Main Street Presbyterian.
[edit] Bailey's tavern
Bailey's is a local bar that is located next to town hall. It has a jukebox and a TV with a satellite dish. According to the tenth episode, there is one case of soda, one case of liquor, and fourteen bottles of mustard in the tavern.The Bar was only powered once in episodes Vox Populi and The Day Before since they decided to use their (Eric and Mary's), "Generator Rations".
[edit] Sheriff's Department
[edit] Fire Department
Jericho has a volunteer fire department, with at least three fire trucks and two other vehicles. One of the trucks, along with half of the department and the Fire Chief, went to Denver, Colorado to help with the relief effort. Throughout the first season, the Jericho Fire Department has been called out three times. The first was in the pilot episode to stop a fight at Murphy's gas station, and to help establish an emergency plan. Second, in the episode "Four Horsemen" they were called to dig out the survivors that were taking shelter the town mine after the fallout from Denver had passed. Third, in the episode "Federal Response", the fire department was called out to extinguish several fires around town. In Heart of Winter they were recruited by Eric to assist in the rescue of Jake Green who had his leg pinned by a wrecked truck.
[edit] Chief Carol
Chief Carol was the Fire Chief in Jericho. He was the second person to meet Robert Hawkins. Throughout the episode he played a major role in calming the town down. He found Hawkins very helpful in the way that he told Carol to put up emergency lights to illuminate the darkened Main Street. He helped break up a fight at Merthy's Gas Station. In Federal Response it is mentioned by Former Mayor Green that Chief Carol went to Denver to assist in a possible relief effort.
Chief Carol was portrayed by Alex Carter.
[edit] Fire Captain
The Fire Captain was first seen in the episode Fallout where he was in the public address syestem on the fire engine to warn the town about the fallout. In Federal Response he was the lead firefighter and was referred to as chief. He thought it was a good idea to split up the already minimized fire department.
The Fire Captain was played by Butch Hammett
[edit] EMS (Emergency Medical Service)
Jericho's EMS includes at least two ambulances and four EMS workers. One of the ambulances is run by the medical clinic, and the other is run by the fire department. They were seen in the pilot with the sheriff's deputies and in "Fallout" helping put the injured people from the clinic into the town hall's fallout shelter. In "The Walls of Jericho", they went with Jake Green, Emily Sullivan, Eric Green, Deputy Bill, and Deputy Jimmy to rescue the survivors form Denver that were at Bass Lake. In episode "Federal Response", they went with Dr. Green to the library fire to help revive Emily, who was knocked unconscious by the live electric wire that caused the fire. They were once again called to aid in the rescue of Jake Green who was pinned under a truck and suffering from hypothermia in Heart of Winter.
[edit] April Green
Dr. April Green is a doctor that works in the Jericho Medical Clinic. She has responded with the paramedics before.
April Green is played by Darby Stanchfield
[edit] Others
Kenchy Dwuhalia- brought from Rogue River by Jake and Eric. Originally a plastic surgeon in Las Vegas he volunteered for the relief effort to escape Vegas, which without power was very unpleasant. He suffers from post traumatic stress due to his experience in Rogue River and Ravenwood.
??- third year medical student. She arrived with the group of refugees.
Gail Green- Worked as a nurse in her youth.
Bonnie Richmond- Has volunteered at the medical center since she was sixteen.
[edit] See also
[edit] Actual towns in the area
[edit] Fictional towns in the area
[edit] References
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| Jake Green | Emily Sullivan | Heather Lisinski | Eric Green | April Green | Robert Hawkins Gray Anderson | Dale Turner | Gail Green | Johnston Green | Stanley Richmond | Bonnie Richmond Bill Erikson | Mary Bailey | Gracie Leigh | Mimi Clark | Jonah Prowse | Jimmy Taylor | Skylar Stevens |
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| Related content | |
| Characters list | Jericho, Kansas | Episode list | Beyond Jericho | |
