Fake TV Town Locations: An Investigation

Hawkins appears to be modeled after a run-of-the-mill Midwest suburb, but there are some clues throughout the show—especially in Season 2—that help us place the potential location of Hawkins.In season 2 episode 7, Eleven takes a bus to Chicago to find Kali, her long-lost sister. Let’s entertain the idea that Hawkins has a direct bus route to Chicago. According to Google Maps, Chicago is a 3 hour and 11 minute drive from Fort Wayne and a 2 hour and 55 minute drive from Indianapolis. Eleven heads out on her trip in the daylight, and gets off the bus in Chicago at night, so a 3-ish hour bus ride feels like enough time for the sun to go down, giving us some vague positioning information for where Hawkins could be.Meanwhile in season 2 episode 5, titled “Dig Dug,” Joyce’s new love interest Bob along with Mike help decipher a map of Hawkins that Will has drawn. Bob briefly mentions the location “Tippecanoe,” which could be a reference to Tippecanoe River in Indiana. Tippecanoe runs through the north half of the state, and passes by a town called Rochester, which appears to have a lot of the characteristics of Hawkins. It’s a small town with several lakes and wooded areas, which we saw throughout Hawkins in the rest of the series.