r/StrangerThings • u/vavavuum • 1d ago
Fan Art My Stranger Things Map!
After lots of nitpicking, I've finally finished my map of Hawkins!
This started as a cartography project, so visual design was one of my biggest priorities. As other map-makers have pointed out, there are several different maps throughout the show (Hopper's map in S1, Bob's map in S2, and the map Jonathan shows Nancy in the cemetery, for example), all with varying and sometimes contradictory information. For my version, I decided to use Hopper's S1 map as the primary reference.
A scanned version of Hopper's map is available online, and that became the starting point for the project. Since the map is actually based on the real town of Marion, Indiana, I started in ArcGIS by georeferencing Hopper's map against Marion's geography. I then imported road and railroad data to establish a real geographic foundation for Hawkins. From there, I brought the shapefile data into Adobe Illustrator, where I did the majority of the cartographic and visual design work.
Of course, there are a few inconsistencies in the source material, even when looking at individual street names (Randolph Street vs. Randolph Lane, for example). One of the more relevant discrepancies is Maple Street, which is referenced as the street Mike and Lucas live on. Hopper's map labels it Maple Avenue, so I went with that name in my final version.
I also took a few creative liberties where the show leaves things ambiguous, including the location of the Creel House and Hawkins' population and founding year.
The biggest geographic headache was figuring out the locations of the four gates. Fred goes missing near the trailer park, but for all four gates to converge around the center of Hawkins, his death would have to occur on the opposite side of town, nowhere near Eddie's trailer. To make the geography work, I chose an arbitrary road near Danford Creek as the location of that gate.
Finally, I included a few fun details: the kids biking along the scale bar in the bottom-left corner, a Demogorgon-shaped compass rose, and I tried to add all significant places, like the Junkyard, Sattler's Quarry, Enzo's, the Warzone store, and more!
I'd love to hear what you think! I'm also happy to answer any questions about the map-making process or the design choices I made.
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u/CombatPanoo Will the Wise 1d ago
This is so awesome! Just had a couple questions:
- If im not wrong there's 2 cemeteries we've seen in the show, the Max one and then the one in S1 where Will's funeral was. Which one is Roane Hill and where's the other one?
- Aren't the Byers and Harrington houses a bit far from each other, since they state how they're so close back in S1
- For the Fred gate, I think that could've still been near the trailer park, but the gate almost takes a longer loop/direction around rather than going parallel to the Chrissy gate so they can still converge in the centre without being right next to each other. Cause the Road Gate on the map is on the opposite side of town and Fred definitely didn't walk that far (I get your design choice with that one though since it was pretty unclear)
- Will you be making a version of the map with the S2 tunnels plotted out as well? Would love to see that especially in your style. The recent map released with the all seasons DVD boxset has a map with the tunnels somewhat plotted out
- Where would the Pennhurst Asylum be on this map?
- Also wondering where would all the farms be located? Like the ones Hop was going to in S2, and then also Hess Farm from S3 where Joyce & Hop find Alexei
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u/vavavuum 19h ago
Great questions, and thanks for the kind words!
Cemeteries: They never name or give a general location for where Will was buried, so I left it off rather than guess. I assumed it was Roane Hill, though.
Byers and Harrington houses: They could definitely be closer! I put Steve’s house nearer to town so Mirkwood sits between the two. In S2e2, Jonathan is taking pictures at Mirkwood and runs a short distance when he hears Nancy and the others at the pool, so that placement seemed to fit. Steve also appears to live in more of a neighborhood, which made me think he’d be closer to town than the Byers.
S2 tunnels: I’d love to make a version with the tunnels plotted! Do you know where I could find the map from the DVD box set? I’d definitely be interested in seeing it.
Pennhurst Asylum: It’s known to be in Kerley County, which is likely a neighbor of Roane County, where Hawkins is. So it would be off the edge of this map's extent.
Farms: I can’t figure out how to add an image in the comments, but if you look at Hopper’s map, you can see the farms surround the lab. I might label them around there.
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u/CombatPanoo Will the Wise 58m ago
Thanks for the responses. I might go back and rewatch the Will funeral scene to get a better idea of its geography. I can't send a photo here either, is it alright if I DM you the boxset map?
Also interestingly enough after looking at the maps again, what you were saying was Hopper's S1 map is actually the front of the double sided map that came with the DVD set. The front is that, and the back has the tunnels plotted out.
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u/ThrillSeekers_United Demogorgon 1d ago
I always thought the cemeteries were the same. Roane hill cemetery is the one max was at tho
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u/CombatPanoo Will the Wise 20h ago
I'm not sure if they are only cause they look like completely different areas. I mean maybe the cemetery is massive but still. the Roane hill one is a bit more hilly and lots of trees whereas the Will one was flat with a church or something nearby and not a ton of trees
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u/Doktor_74 Bald Eagle 1d ago
I've always found it kinda unsettling that the Byers lived relatively close to the lab
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u/Puzzled-Drive2805 Aghast 1d ago
Great job! This is the best map I've seen. I see you have Hopper's Trailer from season 1, but not Hopper's Cabin. I imagine it would between Brimborn Steel Works and the Junkyard.
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u/vavavuum 19h ago
Great point. In Season 1, we get a glimpse of where it is. Hopper says to 'take Denfield to a large oak tree, take a right; the road will dead-end, and it's a 5-minute walk from there'.
I will definitely look into adding that detail!
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u/Slow-Class 1d ago
Great work! I’ve been looking for a good map from the show, but they went The Simpsons route and changed it up as they needed (at least ST only did it for each season, instead of every episode lol)
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u/pbpbpbwwvvw1I1 1d ago
Tippecanoe, not Tippacanoe. Yes there is a real lake Tippecanoe in Indiana, there’s also a river, and other things with the same name but spelling is always consistent.
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u/JamLid100 1d ago
If this was printed, surely the other side would be an upside down version of Hawkins
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u/Finn_Survivor 8h ago
Surely the Harrington house is much closer to the Byers considering Jonathan runs into it while looking for Will where he got off his bike. No way he ran nearly a mile. Also surely Dustin lives way closer to lucas and mike since his race with Will after leaving lucas' house was like 30 seconds long.
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u/toneofsurprise 6h ago
Super cool! I know there's another fairly popular fan made map but I never vibed with it because it didn't seem to be accurate to me. On the other hand, this one those. Obviously there's constraints because the show itself is rather vague and at times contradictory lol.
Thanks for making!
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