Calvin and Hobbes's true location

Many have speculated the location of the two protagonists in the popular comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. But today, with the help of my recollection, Gocomics.com, the Calvin and Hobbes fandom, and Google Maps, I will officially crack the case on where these two live.

For starters, let's figure out the places they don't live. Obviously, they live in the US, so let's narrow it down, state by state:

• Calvin and Hobbes don't live in California, as seen in this strip from April 13, 1990. Keep in mind that it also takes a five-hour flight to get there.

• Calvin and Hobbes don't live in Arizona either, as seen in this strip from July 30, 1989. They also apparently don't live near Flagstaff.

• Nor do the pair reside in the state of Alaska. This strip showing Calvin's horrible exaggeration of his dinner from August 30, 1987 shows that he considers running away to the state.

• Some strip (I forgot) shows that Calvin doesn't live in Hawaii. And it is rather obvious that he doesn't. I mean, snow in Hawaii? Unless you live atop Mauna Kea, that's not gonna happen.

• As can be seen in this strip from June 15, 1988, Calvin apparently deosn't live in Florida either. Although, much like Hawaii, it's rather obvious he doesn't.

• Although not explicitly mentioned, we can make the assumption that Calvin doesn't live in the following states, based on climate and geography:

  • North Carolina

  • South Carolina

  • Georgia

  • Tennessee

  • Alabama

  • Mississippi

  • Arkansas

  • Louisiana

  • Texas

  • Oklahoma

  • New Mexico

  • Colorado

  • Nevada

  • North Dakota

  • South Dakota

  • Nebraska

  • Kansas

  • Kentucky

  • Missouri

  • Montana

  • Idaho

  • Wyoming

  • West Virginia
    

Now to figure out where he does live. We've already eliminated an enormous portion of the country, and now it's time to figure out what states fit the qualifications.

Remember that in the California strip, it takes 5 hours to fly there, which places calvin in the Eastern Time Zone. This eliminates Minnesota, Illinois, and Indiana. Although Eastern Time Zone does include parts of Indiana, this strip indicates they live in a city near a lake. Since the only city near a lake in Indiana is Gary, which is in the Central Time Zone, this narrows out Indiana. This also can narrow out New England. We are left with the states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. In this strip, Hobbes notes that the two live near the "E" in "States". Now let's take a look at an atlas map of the US.

As you can see, the "E" is nowhere near the states of Pennsylvania and New York. This leaves us with Michigan and Ohio. Now, let's look deeper. Calvin and Hobbes live somewhere near a big city on a lake. This narrows it down to either Cleveland or Detroit. Indicated by this strip, it takes the family 1 ¹/₂ hours to drive to the beach, which has a lot of people. I did some digging, and I found out that Bill Watterson's hometown, Chagrin Falls, Ohio, is about 70 miles away from Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. Here's an image for reference:

Now assuming that Calvin's dad wasn't speeding or going super slow, but was going the standard speed of 60 miles/hour, and considering that the route isn't a straight line, we can see that Cedar Point is about an hour and a half away from Chagrin Falls. However, I also located a beach in Michigan that was far away from Detroit, but it was far too small to be loaded with people. Cleveland also has a Natural History Museum, a zoo (some pictures from there), and many, many, skyscrapers.

So the case is solved-- Calvin and Hobbes Live in the town of Chagrin Falls, Ohio! Make sure to upvote this if you found it interesting!

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FURTHER INFORMATION

Calvin's Hometown | The Calvin and Hobbes Wiki | Fandom
Calvin and Hobbes | GoComics
Calvin and Hobbes | Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia