Is Kingstown, Michigan from 'Mayor of Kingstown' a real place?

"Mayor of Kingstown" follows the McLusky family in a Michigan town whose economy runs almost entirely on incarceration. There is no real Kingstown in Michigan, since the city is fictional, but the show's core idea comes from a real place across the border: Kingston, Ontario.

Why the question is trending now

Interest in the show's setting has risen since all four existing seasons began streaming on Netflix on October 5, 2026, alongside the series' original home on Paramount+, according to TVLine. TVLine reported that a fifth and final season has not yet aired.

The real inspiration: Kingston, Ontario

Co-creator Hugh Dillon, who also appears in the cast, grew up in Kingston, Ontario, and drew on that upbringing when developing the series with Taylor Sheridan, according to ScreenRant and High On Films. Kingston is a real Canadian city founded in 1787 as "King's Town," and High On Films described it as having been shaped by a local economy "closely tied to the correctional system."

How many prisons, really?

Sources give slightly different figures for Kingston's prison history. ScreenRant and High On Films both describe a historical peak of around ten prisons operating in the Kingston area at the same time. Distractify gives a similar range, citing nine prisons in the Kingston area historically, with seven still standing inside the city's limits. ScreenRant separately notes that the fictional Kingstown in the show is depicted with seven prisons within a 10-mile radius — the same number Distractify cites for present-day Kingston, Ontario. The most famous of Kingston's real prisons, Kingston Penitentiary, opened in 1835 and closed in 2013 after more than 175 years in operation, per Distractify and High On Films.

Distractify noted that in Kingston's early history, inmates from the penitentiary worked in a nearby limestone quarry, supplying stone used to build parts of the city — an echo of the deep economic ties between the prison system and the town that the series dramatizes.

Filmed in Canada, set in Michigan

Although the story is set in Michigan, production took place across Ontario rather than in the United States. ScreenRant reported that filming locations included Kingston itself (and the decommissioned Kingston Penitentiary), along with Hamilton, Toronto, Etobicoke and Brantford, which stood in for the McLusky family's office, a diner, a drug dealer's property and the family home, respectively.

The show's premise

The series centers on the McLusky brothers, described by ScreenRant as unofficial "power brokers" in a town built around seven prisons. After eldest brother Mitch is killed, his brother Mike, played by Jeremy Renner, must decide whether to take over his role as an intermediary between inmates, law enforcement and the wider community. ScreenRant reported that Sheridan and Dillon conceived the idea together roughly a decade before the show premiered, when both were still working actors.