Stranger Things

Hawkins was a small midwestern town located in Roane County in the US state of Indiana, positioned about 80 miles outside of Indianapolis. It had an estimated population of 10,000 to 15,000.

 

Prior to 1983, Hawkins was a largely quiet and uneventful town. The last person to be reported missing prior to 1983 was in the summer of 1923, while the last suicide was in fall 1961.[2] The only major incident of note was the Creel family tragedy of 1959, in which Victor Creel was believed to have brutally murdered his wife and two children.

The greatest point of interest was the secretive Hawkins National Laboratory, one of several national laboratories which grew out of the scientific endeavors of the Second World War. Unbeknownst to the residents of the town, the lab hosted experiments for the controversial government program known as “MKUltra”. These experiments yielded the births of a number of child test subjects with psychokinetic abilities, who were in turn experimented on. The test subjects were strictly confined to the lab’s confines, their existence kept top secret by the authorities.

In November 1983, during experiments at the laboratory, one of these test subjects, “Eleven”, accidentally opened a gate to an alternate dimension, allowing a predatory humanoid creature to enter Hawkins. The monster abducted residents and brought them to the other world. Among its victims were Will Byers, who was brought home after a week, and Barbara Holland, who was killed by the creature. The circumstances of their disappearances were covered up by the agents at Hawkins Lab.

Following the opening of the Gate, the alternate dimension, known by Will Byers’s friends as “The Upside Down”, began to slowly influence the surrounding environment. Gigantic, vine-like tunnels grew out from the Gate, burrowing deep beneath the city, and local crops began to rot. However, in 1984, the Upside Down’s incursion was halted after Eleven closed the Gate. Shortly after the Gate’s closure, Hawkins Lab was officially shut down after Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers secretly recorded a confession from Sam Owens and presented it to Murray Bauman, a former reporter. Bauman was not convinced the public would believe the truth about the events that occurred in Hawkins, and told the pair their efforts would have greater impact if the story was altered to be more believable. As a result, Barbara Holland’s death was reported to be caused by a chemical spill from the lab.

The mayor of Hawkins, Larry Kline began buying property in East Hawkins for a company called Starcourt Industries where he in return, began the construction of Starcourt Mall. When the mall opened in the summer of 1985, many shops and businesses in the downtown area of Hawkins were forced to close, causing friction between the mayor and the citizens. However, most of the citizens enjoyed Starcourt, as there were new stores and restaurants than there were in Hawkins before the mall’s construction. However, unknown to Mayor Kline and the citizens of Hawkins, Starcourt Mall was actually a front for a secret underground Russian base where the Russians built a machine capable of opening a portal to the Upside Down. The mall’s Scoops Ahoy ice cream parlor’s employees, Steve Harrington and Robin Buckley, along with Dustin Henderson and Erica Sinclair discovered the base when Dustin intercepted the Russians’ communication through his homemade ham radio where they barely managed to escape from the base.

Hawkins’s Chief of Police, Jim Hopper and Joyce Byers also discovered the Russians’ presence in Hawkins when a power outage disables the magnetism of Joyce’s magnets and finding Russian scientist, Alexei. When realizing the Russians’ intention to reopen the gate to the Upside Down, Hopper, Joyce, and Murray Bauman rushed back to Hawkins to close the gate again. They managed to sneak into the base and close the gate, though Hopper is presumed to be killed in the process and Starcourt Mall burned to the ground as result of the Party’s battle with the Mind Flayer’s avatar.

Three months after the mall’s destruction, Hawkins became the focal point of several conspiracy theories due to recent events going viral and Mayor Kline arrested for illegal fundings for the mall’s construction.

By March 1986, many residents of Hawkins now believe the town is cursed due to the large amount of deaths and mysterious events that took place within a relatively small amount of time. Soon after, these beliefs are fuelled by the deaths of several teenagers in Hawkins at the hands of Vecna. The citizens, oblivious to the truth, come to the conclusion the murders were ritualistic sacrifices performed by the Hellfire Club. Many of the residents of Hawkins began taking up arms and hunting members of the Hellfire Club, specifically their leader Eddie Munson; a prime suspect in the murders. The hunt is ultimately cut short, however, when Vecna achieves his goal of breaking the barriers between the normal world and the Upside Down. As a result, huge chasms open up all throughout Hawkins, causing catastrophic damage, killing several people and enveloping the surrounding environment in thick vines.

With the town almost destroyed and having been plagued by constant death and destruction, many Hawkins residents decide to abandon the town and move elsewhere. Soon after, the large cracks formed by Vecna’s plot begin to serve as huge gates to the Upside Down, which begins bleeding into the normal world, causing red lightning storms and the local plant life to begin withering away.

 

Residents

Included and Nearby Locations

Downtown

The Downtown of Hawkins was the center of the city of Hawkins, where several public buildings and commercial shops were located. It was a town square surrounding a clock tower building in the center that housed the Public Library.

Underground

Roads and areas

  • Mirkwood – Road near the Byers’ home going past Hawkins National Laboratory, located where Cornwallis and Kerley meet.[3]
  • Cornwallis – Close to the Wheeler home, continues onto Kerley, where it goes off to Mirkwood.[3][4]
  • Kerley – Continues onto Cornwallis, where it goes off to Mirkwood.[3]
  • Elm and Cherry – Crossing streets where Mike and Dustin would meet Lucas.[4]
  • Randolph Lane – Where Benny’s Burgers is located.[3]
  • Oak Street – The Hawk is located on Oak Street, as seen where it is engraved on the curb.[4]
  • Randolph Road – Goes past Hawkins National Laboratory.[4]
  • Cherry Lane – The street where the Hargrove House is located.
  • Mulberry Street – Near Melvald’s General Store.
  • Maple Street – The street where the Wheeler, Sinclair and Blackburn families live.
  • “Dearborn and Maple” – Likely an intersection between Maple Street and a possible “Dearborn Street”. Nancy and Steve initially plan to meet there after school in Chapter One.
  • Loch Nora – A wealthy neighborhood in Hawkins.
  • Old Highway 77 – Goes Past Starcourt Mall.
  • Weathertop Hill – The location of Cerebro in Summer 1985.
  • Cherry Oak Drive – The street where Brimborn Steel Works is located; and is near Cerebro and Starcourt Mall.
  • Heraty Bridge Road – The road where Hess Farm is located.

 

Courtesy of Stranger Things Wiki – a FANDOM TV Community – all links back to the original pages.