From 1883 to 1923: How the Yellowstone Prequels Are More Connected Than You Think

Through the five seasons of Yellowstone, the Dutton family has endured several hardships to keep the ranch and their family intact. As the series gears up for Season Five Part Two, which will conclude the popular modern Western, fans may want to review the history of the Dutton family. There are two prequel series that go into that history.

1883 chronicles how the family eventually came to own Yellowstone Ranch and stars Isabel May, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Sam Elliott and others. 1923 serves as another prequel to Yellowstone and a sequel to 1883. Starring Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, Brandon Sklenar, and others, 1923 further chronicles the personal drama and historical heartbreak the Dutton family endures. However, some fans may still wonder what exactly connects the two shows and how it all ties back to Yellowstone in the end.

Updated by Jordan Iacobucci on April 7, 2025: The Yellowstone franchise may have lost its primary series, but it is far from ending. With multiple new spinoffs in the pipeline, the story of the Dutton family is getting bigger, not smaller. Fans can go back in time to see the history of the Duttons and their infamous ranch, as far back as the 1800s. This article is updated to include more information about the Duttons’ history in the Yellowstone franchise and to adhere to CBR’s current formatting guidelines.

1883 Introduces the Dutton Family

Headstrong Tennesseans, The Duttons Head Out For Oregon From Texas

The Dutton family thrives in its ownership of Yellowstone Ranch in the modern day, but how they came to own the ranch in the first place is a tale of hardship, violent confrontations, and death that is told in the single season of 1883. The series opens with several characters seeking different things. The Dutton family, who are headed by James Dutton (Tim McGraw) and who are originally from Tennessee, want to leave Fort Worth, Texas, for Oregon, where they plan to settle.

1923 Accomplished Something With 1 Character That Yellowstone Never Quite Got Right

1923 is building up an actually complex villain with one of its supporting characters–something the Yellowstone franchise has struggled with.

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Shea Brennan (Sam Elliott) is contracted to lead them there, but he truly wants to die after the passing of his wife and daughter to smallpox. There is also a group of immigrants from Europe who combine their resources with Shea and the Duttons to make it to Oregon. But tragedy strikes many times and in many ways throughout the trip. James and his wife Margret (Faith Hill) struggle to maintain unity while their headstrong 17-year-old daughter, Elsa (Isabel May), takes on the rough life of a cowboy, eventually falling in love with one, Ennis. At one point, the group is attacked by bandits, and Mary Abel, James’s niece, is killed. As James and Shea pursue them, his sister, Claire – who was Mary Abel’s mother – dies by suicide. Later, the cowboy that Elsa falls in love with is killed, leaving her alone and grieving.

How the Duttons Come To Own the Yellowstone

Tragedy Brings The Duttons To the Ranch

Tragedy always strikes the Duttons at the worst time. As the group continues toward Oregon, tensions mount between the Duttons and the immigrants, whose numbers have dwindled greatly. A couple of immigrants are found to be stealing food. Another of the immigrants openly questions Shea’s leadership. Meanwhile, James and Margret argue about the effect that the journey is having on Elsa, who grows more headstrong by the day. When the company passes through Comanche territory, she meets and befriends a young Comanche man named Sam. Sam joins the group, and the two fall in love. Elsa tells her family that she will accompany them to Oregon, but then will return to marry Sam. But everyone’s plans forever change when the Lakota tribe attacks the group as retribution for slaughtering some of their people (an act the Duttons and the immigrants did not commit).

1923 Secretly Teases the Origin of Yellowstone’s Most Infamous Location

1923’s latest episode teases the origins of an iconic location from the original Yellowstone series that nearly destroyed the Dutton family.

In the course of the attack, Elsa is shot with an arrow. She diffuses the situation, but James and Margret realize that she is going to die. Realizing this, Elsa asks to choose her burial spot. A Crow tribe healer tells her of a valley in Montana called Paradise, and James quickly takes her there, leaving the rest of the group to catch up as they can. Elsa dies in her father’s arms and is buried in the valley. The Duttons settle in that valley, ending one of the best period dramas in recent memory.

How 1923 Expands and Explores The Dutton Family Tree

Trial and Tribulation Continue To Define the Duttons

1923 opens with Elsa narrating the changes that have occurred in the Dutton family since the end of 1883. James Dutton passed away a decade after the death of Elsa, leaving Margret and her three children to struggle to maintain the ranch in the harsh environment of Montana. Margret wrote to James’ brother Jacob, pleading with him to come out to Montana. He did, but was too late to help Margret who had frozen to death. But Jacob could help her two children who were starving. And so, 1923, one of the best prequel series of all time, begins with an elderly Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford) and his wife Cara (Helen Mirren), who are caretakers of the ranch. They’re the last connection to the generation of 1883, having worked in the intervening years, and adoptive parents to James and Margret’s surviving children: John and Spencer. Many fans assumed that John and his wife, Emma, would grow to become the parents of John Dutton II and grandparents of the family’s current patriarch, John Dutton III (Kevin Costner).

Sorry Yellowstone Fans, 1923 Is Better Than the Original in 1 Major Way (& It Helps the Duttons)

Despite what the critics might say, 1923 is better than Yellowstone in one crucial way that helps make the Dutton family more compelling.

However, in the third episode of Season 1, John dies when he gets caught in the crossfire of Banner Creighton’s Tommy gun in an ongoing battle for land between the ranchers and the sheepherders. Later, in Episode 5, Emma dies by suicide after falling into a grief-driven depression, leaving their only son, Jack. The rest of the season deals with the fallout of the attack and ends with a great deal of uncertainty. Spencer is still en route, and the Duttons owe Donald Whitfield for paying their property taxes on his behalf. If he doesn’t receive payment by the end of the year, the ranch becomes his.

Only Two Characters From 1883 Return in 1923

Their Appearances in 1923 Help Bring Continuity

Because the shows take place 40 years apart, it only makes sense that most of the main characters from 1883 would not be returning by 1923. By the time the story of 1923, James and Margaret are long dead, leaving a new generation to take over the handling of the ranch. Because of this, only one character who was still alive by the end of 1883 was able to return and cross over into the sequel/prequel series. That character is John Dutton Sr.

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Given the kind of prominence that the eldest son of James and Margaret had in 1883, 1923 makes surprisingly little use of him. As previously mentioned, he’s seen very little before he’s killed off in the third episode. This puts the focus of the story on his aunt and uncle and the exploits of his two younger brothers. 1923 also maintains only one other connection to its predecessor, with Elsa as the narrator at the beginning of the series. Her beyond-the-grave narration connects to the narration that she gives in 1883, with Isabel May’s voice lending the continuity.

1923 Sets Up a New Era of the Dutton Family Saga

The Final Season of 1923 Sets Up the Future of the Franchise

The series finale of 1923 telegraphs the end of one era of the Dutton family saga while setting up another. The series primarily charts the battle between the Duttons and Donald Whitfield, a British businessman who wants to take over the Yellowstone and convert it into a ski resort. The skirmish spills over into the final episodes of the series, which see the Duttons emerge victorious, though not without losing several key family members. 1923 ends with Cara and Jacob still in control of the Yellowstone Ranch, where they presumably live out their final days in peace. Their nephew Spencer has also returned to the ranch by this time, where he plans to raise his newborn son, John.

Yellowstone’s 1923 Spinoff Owes Everything to 1 Major Taylor Sheridan Mistake

Without an 1883 mishap, 1923 wouldn’t exist, and fans wouldn’t have one of their favorite new Western shows.

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John’s birth signifies one step closer to the events of the original Yellowstone series. Still an infant by the end of 1923, John goes on to become the father of Kevin Costner’s character in the original series. Presumably, Taylor Sheridan plans to follow Spencer and John’s continuing adventures in the upcoming spinoff series, 1944, which (as their titles may imply) takes place twenty years after the events of 1923. As another World War engulfs the globe, the Duttons will undoubtedly change with the times, bringing them a little closer to the characters audiences meet during the events of the original Yellowstone.

1944 Bridges The Gap Between 1923 And Yellowstone

Yellowstone Is Beginning to Connect Its Series

Throughout two seasons of television, writer Taylor Sheridan has managed to weave together a thrilling and entertaining history of the Dutton family. Another upcoming prequel, 1944, is set to bridge the gap between 1923 and the original show that started it all. Even though Yellowstone is nearing its end, fans of the franchise can still look forward to more stories from the Dutton family’s long history. It certainly doesn’t seem like Sheridan has any plans to end it for good as he continues to explore the past Dutton generations.

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1944 is particularly interesting, as it stands as both a prequel to Yellowstone and a sequel to 1923, marking a first in the franchise’s history. The show takes place in the titular year of 1944, only about 15 years before the birth of Kevin Costner’s character in the original series. While details are scarce, fans believe the series will follow Spencer Dutton, John Dutton III’s grandfather, after the events of 1923. As such, the show could explore how the Yellowstone-Dutton Ranch came to be as it was at the beginning of the flagship series, bridging the gap between the prequels and the original show.

If the show covers enough time, it could even include the birth of John Dutton III, officially coming full circle. The Yellowstone franchise may be losing its chief series (or not, depending on if certain rumors from Paramount prove true), but still has plenty of stories left to tell. As Taylor Sheridan completes one phase of his iconic franchise, fans look forward to seeing what he has in store for them next.