- Fake Nationality: While on location in Moab, the crew brought fifty Navajo up from the reservation to play Apache in the film, accompanied by Lee Bradley, who served as translator. Billy Yellow, one of the Indians selected for closeups, stated forty years later that the Navajo weren't told that they were portraying Apache.
- Fatal Method Acting: According to Maureen O'Hara in her biography, Tis Herself, some stunt men died during the shooting of the film when they fell from their horses during a scene in the middle of a muddy river. Their bodies were never recovered.
- One for the Money; One for the Art: John Ford made the film purely to get The Quiet Man made. Ford wanted to make the latter first, but Republic Pictures studio president Herbert Yates didn't think the script was very good and wanted Rio Grande to be released first to pay for The Quiet Man. To Yates' surprise, The Quiet Man, on its eventual release in 1952, would become Republic's number one film in terms of box office receipts.
- Real-Life Relative: The film marked the uncredited debut of John Wayne's 11-year-old second son Patrick.
- Vacation, Dear Boy: The film was treated as an exercise by John Ford (Harry Carey Jr. called it one of the director's "vacation pictures"). The budget was half of the production costs for Fort Apache, and no one, Ford included, seemed to take the project very seriously.
- Working Title: Rio Bravo and Rio Grande Command.
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