The Spooky Small Town In Illinois That Could Be Straight Out Of Stranger Things
By Elizabeth Crozier|Published October 31, 2017
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Elizabeth Crozier
Author
An Illinois transplant who grew up and went to school in Indiana for 22 years, Elizabeth holds a BFA in creative writing and has enjoyed traveling across the country and parts of Europe. She has visited half of the states, as well as parts of Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean, and regularly travels home to the Hoosier State to see friends and family. With more than five years of writing experience, Elizabeth’s articles have been featured on several websites, and her poetry and short stories have been published in multiple literary journals.
You’ve probably just finished binge watching season two of Stranger Things on Netflix, and now it’s all you can think about. From the secret lab to the small-town stores and homes, there is a place in Illinois that is similar to the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, and you should definitely plan a visit.
Adventure through the woods or shop at some local stores in this village to immerse yourself in this 1980s horror flick world. Keep scrolling for proof that the town of Lemont might be just as strange as the one on the show.
Let's start with Hawkins National Laboratory. Though this place is as fictional as the town, it somewhat resembles Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, which was founded in 1946 to facilitate research on nuclear reactors. It was the first designated National Lab in the U.S. and was named after the surrounding forest.
Today, the secluded facility is a research center dealing with energy, national security, technology, and the environment. You never know what else could be going on deep within though.
Some of the houses in town even resemble a few homes of the characters from Stranger Things. Dustin, Lucas, Will, and Mike resided in fairly modest residencies. Like Hawkins, there are nicer parts of town and parts that are more rundown.
As Illinois is part of the Midwest and right next door to Indiana, much of our geography greatly resembles that of Hawkins. The woods surrounding the lab look just like the ones where the boys rode bikes and ran into eerie things like demogorgons (or demodogs) and living vine tunnels.
Lemont's charming, vintage downtown area also resembles scenes from Stranger Things. This looks almost just like the part of town where Joyce works and buys all those telephones.
Lemont is a village of about 16,000 people and is located about 30 miles outside Chicago. Though it is not so much a small town today, in the 1980s, between only about 5,000 and 7,000 people inhabited the area.
Take an afternoon to roam around this town and imagine that you are part of the story. It's a great place to cosplay but be sure to leave before dark and watch out for you know what.
