Location and Filming
The novel places the town at the junction of the South Platte River and the Cache la Poudre River which would place it roughly halfway between the Colorado towns of Greeley and Kersey. This is consistent with Michener's description of the town's location; however no real town exists in this area. This location would place the spot of the fictional town in central Weld County on the High Plains about 25 miles (40 km) east of the base of the Rockies. Author James A. Michener lived in Greeley during the late 1930s and was familiar with the area. Michener used a variety of source material for his fictional town taken from various areas in eastern Colorado and Centennial is not meant to represent a single settlement. There is a city called Centennial, Colorado, but it did not exist until 2001 and its location and history are not at all similar in any way to the town described in either the book or miniseries.
Principal filming occurred in 1978. There were numerous filming locations in several parts of the United States. Colorado filming locations included Greeley, the Pawnee National Grasslands, Denver, Central City, Orchard, Bent's Old Fort National Monument and the Rocky Mountain National Park. Several of the mountain men era scenes were filmed in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. The scenes representing St. Louis in the late 18th and early 19th century were filmed in Bracken County, Kentucky. The White Hall State Historic Site in Richmond, Kentucky served as the Bockweiss mansion. Scenes representing the Zendt farm and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania were filmed in Ohio.
The ranch house and surrounding buildings used for the Venneford Ranch house was the Highlands Ranch Mansion (pictured) in Highlands Ranch, which ironically is located near the real town of Centennial, Colorado. Years later the surrounding property was developed for housing; one of the streets in the development was named Venneford Ranch Road (by The Mission Viejo Company).
Read more about this topic: Centennial (miniseries)