Horror writer Stephen King is a native of Maine and still lives there. Most of his books are situated in the state, although not all the towns he uses are real. This map shows real-world burgs in Maine (in green) and fictional localities (in blue).
This map can be found on Stephen King’s official website.
Brunswick is real? Jesus, that’s not a happy thought!
Comment by Didymus — March 2, 2007 @ 10:05 pm
No surprise that Bangor is his home:
http://outsider222.wordpress.com
Comment by outsider222 — March 25, 2007 @ 1:04 am
Glad Derry isnt real. Id like to see a map showing Lovecraft’s New England. To Google!!
Comment by Ben — March 27, 2007 @ 8:10 am
When King came up with that “Desolation” town, all I could think of was my own situation. Abandon all hope….
(Gee…I wonder where he got his inspiration?)
Comment by outsider222 — March 30, 2007 @ 12:01 pm
King left out Jerusalem’s Lot, which as near as I can figure out is about at the location the real town of Gray, Maine. On the map, that would be due west of Brunswick and north of Portland.
Comment by Syd — June 26, 2007 @ 6:28 pm
I couldn’t help but notice, Castle rock may not be in the correct location on the map. One of the first descriptions of this town happened in the short story, “The Mist” which describes to a T the roads running between Stevens summer camp in Lovell and Bridgton’s downtown. The bulk of the story takes place at what used to be the I.G.A In Bridgton. In Fact a lot of his stories can be traced to the Fryeburg/Lovell/Bridgton Area, not to mention the towns of Lisbon Falls and Durham where he grew up. In Fact in the book “Carrie” The period in the shower scene actually happened at Lisbon Falls High school (My Uncle and Steven King were both students there at the time) and The description of the Town and the Gym that the story happened in was a spitting Image of the town of Fryeburg. One other short story, Uncle Otto’s truck involved a truck that used to sit on Knights hill in Bridgton (The truck now sits in my best friends garage 3/4 of a mile from my house) Forgive my ranting, but I have always found it fascinating how much local flavor he has gracefully added to his books!
Comment by Dan — June 29, 2007 @ 10:40 pm
I can pretty much put my foot in my mouth about the location of Castle rock, considering I googled it and discovered that this map came from stevens own website, Whoops, My bad!
Comment by Dan — June 29, 2007 @ 10:51 pm
Ooh this is interesting. Always wondered where the fictional towns were.
Comment by Jo — July 3, 2007 @ 8:04 pm
[...] this map takes you to the amazing Strange Maps blog on which the blogger collects the weirdest and most interesting maps there are. It’s a [...]
Pingback by A Map for the Maineites « never enough homework — October 10, 2007 @ 10:26 am
It is good to see so many people interested in Stephen King. I live right down the road from him and have actually spoken to him a couple of times at my job he is always so polite and nice and he helps out the community a lot. He just recently built a swim park for Bangor.
Comment by Amanda — October 19, 2007 @ 10:05 pm
Wow, this is a really cool map. I knew that Stephen King uses his home state as a location for most of his stories, but I never really knew which were real places and which were just a part of his imagination. Very informative.
Comment by trademark registration — December 8, 2007 @ 11:55 pm
Wow this is a really interesting map and clarifies for me which places are real and which are not. I’ve been fascinated with Stephen King and his Maine since I was roughly about 13. Very cool.
Comment by Jenn — January 25, 2008 @ 7:43 pm
I would like the map expanded to include New Hampshire. Many of S.K.’s stories have N.H. locations. In “Cell” he describes my high school and the town it’s in. He changes the names of roads and towns, but locals know when they are being described.
Comment by shannon arbon — January 27, 2008 @ 4:06 am
Actually, “Derry” IS Bangor, Maine, and it’s very sadly and very crookedly very real.
Even Maine’s biggest and most famous promoters have nothing good to say about Bangor.
(All John McDonald would say is that it was known for its bars and brothels.)
Didymus…what’s wrong with Brunswick? It’s quite civilized.
Comment by outsider222 — February 27, 2008 @ 5:32 pm
Why would he leave out Jerusalem’s Lot?
Comment by Nancy Crozier — August 29, 2008 @ 11:18 pm
So where’s Ludlow? (Pet Semetery)
Comment by Bones — September 2, 2008 @ 9:34 pm
“I would like the map expanded to include New Hampshire. Many of S.K.’s stories have N.H. locations. In “Cell” he describes my high school and the town it’s in. He changes the names of roads and towns, but locals know when they are being described.”
No kidding! In “Cell” they travel up 125, and stop and have a zombie fight at the Lilac Mall in Rochester, NH. Near as I can tell, their destination with the fictional name is really North Berwick, Maine, (or one of the Berwicks, for sure) where i grew up).
I love how the state troopers shoot to kill at the Hampton Tolls (we all know the joke there, don’t we?). HAHAHA
Comment by Colleen — September 27, 2008 @ 8:13 pm
thanks
Comment by hero — October 15, 2008 @ 1:19 pm
Bones!!
Ludlow is REal. It is longer than the 17 minute (or mile-it’s been along time since i’ve read it) drive from Bangors airport to Ludlow. I think it’s around where the “T” on the word Penobscot is.
Say true.
Comment by jaysnzees — October 16, 2008 @ 6:36 am
I’d like go to the places on the map,and see if I can figure out why he used the names he did.I’m sure he had some reasons. Like to know what they are.
Comment by WaterLady — October 27, 2008 @ 7:10 pm
Actually Bones/Jaysnzees:
Ludlow, Maine is about 15 miles west of where I-95 touches the Canadian border (i.e. way the heck up there).
Comment by Logan Hogan — November 1, 2008 @ 4:49 pm
thanks alot
Comment by Tony — May 4, 2009 @ 2:22 am
thanks for this map
good
luck
Comment by Solomon — May 11, 2009 @ 7:06 am
merci
Comment by aspicco . — May 17, 2009 @ 4:47 am
teşekkür ederim
Comment by yory — June 12, 2009 @ 8:07 pm
Vielen Dank
Comment by moon — July 3, 2009 @ 3:40 am
Muchas gracias
Comment by sun — July 4, 2009 @ 6:27 am