In the 1973 film “High Plains Drifter,” the town is named Lago.
Lago is a remote frontier settlement whose residents hire a mysterious Stranger, played by Clint Eastwood, to protect them from outlaws. The town’s name is Spanish for “lake,” although the film presents it as an invented Western community rather than a real location.
The name becomes especially important because the Stranger orders the townspeople to paint the buildings red and replace the town’s sign with the word “HELL.” That image connects Lago to the film’s themes of guilt, punishment, and possible supernatural revenge. The Stranger may be the ghost of Marshal Jim Duncan, whom Lago’s citizens failed to save.
Common mix-ups include Big Whiskey, the town in Eastwood’s later film “Unforgiven,” and Hadleyville, a name used in other Westerns. “High Plains Drifter” was released in April 1973 and was directed by Eastwood, his second feature as director.