hey, dingus, your children are here!

The problem:

Whoever made Hopper's map clearly duplicated neighborhoods to make it look "a little" different from Marion, but didn't bother to erase the text associated with what they copied, didn't change landmark names, didn't think about how the river running through Marion would shape its structure in a way that Hawkins wouldn't need, and didn't bother to ask why major thoroughfares ended in nonsensical ways. Sometimes the copied parts just…cut right through words and they didn't even notice. ("Washington School" on the Hawkins map is actually "Washington School Apartments" in Marion, for example, and there's a place where "High School" was cropped to "High Sch." Many others.) They also replaced a hiking path with a second rail line. HELP. More amusing than obnoxious: I'm pretty sure Starcourt only exists because that's where there's a big mall in Marion and they decided not to remove it.

Additional issues: There are two other canonical maps of Hawkins. One was in the Mayor's office or house (I forget which). The other is the paper one Jonathon and Nancy used to track the demogorgon in S1. Neither of these maps align with Hopper's map literally at all. Therefore, I am ignoring the existence of both with the exception of one thing, which I will discuss later.

Please pour one out for my sanity, folks, I was fuckin' losing it trying to make this make sense.

My solution:

What you see here is extremely close to what they gave us, with some adjustments to make the town actually make sense. Major roads extended to explain why they exist at all, some roads added in, others removed.

Road Names

The road names you see here are congruent with Hopper's map, with a few exceptions.

Holland

I added this based on Reefer Rick's address and the direction of the water gate opening in the S4 finale

Old Highway 77

On the fandom wiki (I hate fandom SO MUCH, but it's thorough) it's described as running past Starcourt. Prospect was the only major thoroughfare that made sense, so I followed the same logic I saw in the small town I grew up in (A highway became "main street" through town, then changed back to the highway number on the outskirts).

Cherry Oak Lane

I chose this location based on the images of Scoops Troop looking down at Starcourt from Cerebro. Why Billy would be driving on this road when his house AND the Byers were in the complete opposite direction is a question for the ages, but I'll take specific visual cues over nebulous logic in this case.

"Mirkwood"

This is mentioned as being near "Kerley and Cornwallis" but the only time it's actually shown on a map is when Jonathon and Nancy are tracking the demogorgon—and the rest of that map doesn't line up with anything we've known about Hawkins before or since that scene. Therefore I took the location of Hawkins Lab and the knowledge that Will used it as a shortcut, and built out what you see here. See also: Harringtons and Byers.

Locations

Some of the labeled locations are specifically canon. Others are best guesses based on logic, references in the show, and in a couple of cases, my own preference.

Harringtons and Byers

It's popular fanon that Steve lives in Loch Nora, but it doesn't fit with canon. The one part of the Jonathon and Nancy map scene that made sense (or rather, must be considered, as that was the basis for their season 1 plot line) was that the Harringtons, the Byers, and the location of Will's bike were in close proximity with each other and the Hawkins Lab. Additionally, Steve's house is surrounded by woods and the Byers' residence has a gravel road leading up to it/is surrounded by overgrowth. Both houses seem relatively isolated.

Based on this I put the Byers to the west of the lab, with an access road leading away from town (to explain why Will was trespassing on Mirkwood instead of the "correct" route), and the Harringtons across Cornwallis to keep it...sort of maybe...visually compliant with that portion of Jonathon's map.

I figure Will took Mirkwood down to that last bend before the fence, then pushed (or rode) his bike through the woods to get home. My thought process is supported by the fact that even while absolutely terrified he still knew how to get home through the woods from where he lost his bike, and he didn't appear to be super out of breath when he got there.

Hawkins Lab

I didn't change much from Hopper's map, other than extending the area the lab controls. I didn't necessarily have to do that, but it allowed me to push the Byers' house a little further away from the actual lab but still be plausible for Will to take a shortcut through Mirkwood.

The Buckleys

There is absolutely nothing in canon that specifies where Robin lives, but I figure she must: a) live far enough away from both Hawkins High and Family Video that getting a ride would be useful and b) live close enough to Steve for him to reasonably drive her around. Any place in that triangle between Cornwallis, Cherry, and the railroad would do, so don't take that specific choice as hard canon.

Hargroves

The Hargroves were ostensibly located at 4819 Cherry St. Logically, this means they're located between 4th and 5th Ave on Cherry. There are two problems with this:

A) There are three different locations with the street number 4819. It's clearly the Duffers' default and therefore not as important as the street name. B) It would put them immediately adjacent to the railroad. I don't remember seeing tracks in the background in the scenes at their house, so I just…moved'em down a block.

The Hendersons

We have no location indicators for the Hendersons other than that live between the Wheelers and the Byers. I traced a route between the two houses thinking about how kids make decisions, and landed on the spot I chose because it's simple to get there: down Cherry, through the park, down the unnamed big street next to Mulberry, across 4th. I figure if Will had to turn out of his way to get there, then Dustin wouldn't have offered to race him. I didn't put him further north because it would put him too close to the arcade.

The Hideaway / Melvald's / Downtown Hawkins

I placed the Hideaway based on the shot of Mulberry and Melvald's that we get in The Body in Season 1. I DIDN'T place Melvald's because it went out of business due to Starcourt and that place already has a lot of stuff going on.

Point of curiosity: I'm pretty sure the Hideaway and the Hideout were supposed to be the same bar (they just got the name wrong in S4 ) because Hawkins is too damn small to have two dive bars with nearly the same name. However, the Hideaway was filled with pool tables and is a block from the police station, so I decided to just roll with it. Why not?

The other labels in this area were all on Hopper's map and generally make sense, so I left them as-is.

The Hideout

This is 100% my own fanon preference. Feel free to disregard. I chose the location based on the fact that it's a straight shot down from Factory Ave (where, I figure, there are factories), near one of the only logical locations for a Hawkins train yard, and just far enough away from "downtown" and the police to get away with allowing an amateur metal band to play on Tuesday nights.

The Hospital

The hospital was on Hopper's map, but there seems to be some conflict over what it's actually named. Is it Hawkins General? Is it Hawkins Memorial? Both have been used in show. Again…does a small town need TWO hospitals? I don't think so… I gave up on making sense of it and left the specific name off the map.

Skull Rock

The location information we were given for this was that it was near enough to Lover's Lake for Eddie to walk/run there in a panic, yet also near enough to town for teenagers to use as a makeout spot. I chose a spot that made sense to me.

Junk Yard

Another location chosen on logic and inference rather than any specific canon information. The junk yard was in an isolated location (no town in sight) and close enough to Hawkins Lab for demogorgons to both come from and head to that direction. I chose this location because it felt far enough away that the party wouldn't think to mention the lab, but still accessible to people who want to get rid of stuff.

Reefer Rick's

Could be anywhere around Lover's Lake, but I chose this spot because the water gate split through a decent chunk of the lake to get to Hawkins…and because it let me name the road looping over the south east corner of the map. Both Holland and the unnamed road going around Lover's Lake are logical additions of my own and not present on Hopper's map.

Hopper's Trailer and Cabin (and the lake)

These placements are arbitrary. I thought his trailer and cabin would be in the same general area, but definitely not immediate neighbors. Also, I removed the lake's name because it is geographically impossible for that to be Lake Tippecanoe.

Family Video and the Arcade

I placed these here partially because I needed them to be there for a fan project, and partially because it's far enough away from every kid's house on the map that they'd be asking people for rides to get there…and it makes total sense that Steve and Robin would go to and from work together. Additionally, in my experience indoor malls tend to be surrounded by strip mall extensions.

Benny's Burgers

There's a Branford Way on the map, Benny's is canonically located on "Branford Lane," and I can't find it now but there was also reference to a Branford Street. I find it far more likely that the show writers forgot what type of road Branford was than that there are THREE of them in a small town, so I just put Benny's on the road we have on the map.

This is also one of those places with a 4819 street number so I just placed it in a place close enough to town that people would eat there, but isolated enough that Eleven would feel safe walking up / the basketball team would party there / justifies the amount of wildnerness we see around it in the external shots of the place.

The Wheelers

The Wheelers specifically and particularly live on Maple St near Dearborn and Maple, which is in the northeast of Hawkins. In S4 the four older teens go to the Wheelers after going through the water gate because it's supposedly closer than the police station…which is absolutely, 100%, unequivocally false. I am chalking that up to trivia error and moving on because there's literally nothing else I can do about it.

Boane Hill Cemetery

In Dear Billy, Max asks if the walkie will reach Pennhurst if they "go to east Hawkins." However, they were at the Wheelers and that's already just about as far into east Hawkins as you can get. Therefore, I'm chalking her statement up to forgetfulness (or carelessness) because their actions and the plot line up. It's just the one word that doesn't.

I chose this specific location for the cemetery because "Lincoln Park" (the label on Hopper's map) is a sloppy holdover from the Marion map they based Hawkins on. Since it's a nice sized square, already green, and near where the Hargroves lived, I decided to replace the Marion location with a Hawkins one.

Forest Hill Trailer Park, the Creel House, and Fred's gate

On Hopper's map there's a "trailer park" in the southwest, and a "Forest Hills Park" in the north east. When first drew this map, I assumed the "trailer park" on the map was probably the one Eddie and Max lived in even if that meant the name made no sense, and based the locations of the Creel House and Fred's gate on that information, leading me to this map:

The shape and map accuracy please me. However, the more I looked at it, the more issues I had.

It's weird that the creepy Creel House would be so near the Wheelers and Sinclairs, yet never mentioned before. I'm also vaguely recalling that the Creel House was implied or even stated to be south of Hawkins/near Lover's Lake, but I can't find the reference (and don't have the patience/time to rewatch S4 to find it because Google is singularly unhelpful). More importantly, Fred would have had to walk through downtown (or walk all the way AROUND town) to get to the approximate area he would have had to die in to get that X.

However…if we move the Creel House south and the trailer park north, then Fred's walk makes far more sense and we DO get a neat X. It also makes more sense for the Party to be there when the Upside Down crew get to Eddie's trailer.

Locations I didn't place because I didn't have enough info:

The grocery store Eleven stole from / Scoops Troop broke into to get supplies. My guess is it's somewhere along the road directly beneath the arcade + video label because that's within easy distance of Benny's And Starcourt.

Pennhurst. Apparently there's contradictory info IN the show about whether it's located in or outside of Hawkins. Given it's mostly irrelevant, I left it off entirely.

Hawkins Post. I'm assuming this is in the downtown area, but don't have specific street names to place it.

Fairgrounds. Mega shrug. Maybe the green area in the north east of Hawkins?