The Awakening Land is a 1978 television miniseries based on Conrad Richter's trilogy of novels: The Trees; The Fields; and The Town, published from 1940 to 1950.

The storyline follows the struggle of Sayward Luckett (Montgomery) after she travels to the unsettled Ohio Valley frontier from post-revolutionary Pennsylvania.

Interiors were filmed in a set constructed in a gymnasium in Springfield, the state capital.

As an incentive for the production company to choose the area, the Springfield city council agreed to fill a nearby lake to resemble the Ohio River.

Actress/choreographer Marge Champion instructed the actors in both speech and body language of the region to add to the authenticity of the historical drama.