Where They Live

What We Know

The Darling family live in a two storey house at 44 Shadow Lane in Evanston, Illinois 60204. The street name Shadow Lane is fictitious, but the place is real enough and the producers appear to have gone to some effort to make the references authentic. This is a lakeshore suburb of Chicago, just to the north of the main downtown area. This has never been stated in the programme; in fact nothing more than the fact that they live on Shadow Lane has ever been firmly stated. The only other definite reference is when Clarissa and Sam receive a summons to appear in court from the Cook County Court House - Cook County is the county that contains the Chicago Downtown.

Map of Chicago

The Evidence - Circumstantial

The Evidence - from "Road Trip"

Discussed here by David Dux:
Several of the places mentioned during this episode are real places, although not exactly as described. The route is described by Marshall as "all interstates and superhighways". Ferguson's planned route has several clues:

The locations mentioned are Petro Park, which is noted as being located in Iowa, as being the world's largest gas station. In fact, the world's largest gas station (in terms of number of fuel pumps) is located in Iowa, it is a huge Amoco truck stop on Interstate 80, with over 80 pumps. I have driven by it several times, I believe it is near exit 278 or so, it is the first exit west of where Interstates 80 and 280 join west of the Quad Cities, if you wish to get out your atlas. There is no amusement park here, as described in the show, but there is a truck wash and showers for truckers caked with several days of road grunge.

Another site mentioned is a Coca-Cola can house in Okoboji, IA. I do not know if such a house exists (I would doubt it), but Okoboji can be found on a map in north Iowa. This would be a substantial detour if coming across Iowa on I-80 (about 130 miles one way), but it would be possible. Granted, it is a cool name for a town, and I assume it was chosen just for the comedic value of having the name be said. (This could be something to be seen on the return trip if they went on I-90 instead, as it would be a shorter distance out of the way. I-90 also goes to Chicago, and would be a possible alternative on the return trip by taking the 4-lane highway from Sioux City, Iowa to I-90.)

Finally, the International Currency Museum is mentioned as being in Kearney, Nebraska. Kearney is a real town, located on I-80. No such thing as a Currency Museum exists there, however.

However, initially in "Road Trip", Clarissa states that it will be 18 hours of driving to the Grand Canyon. I would suggest that 18 hours of driving from the Grand Canyon would put you only in Nebraska somewhere, if you followed the route to the aforementioned I-80, and assuming that Marshall follows all state and federal laws concerning speed limits, at least when Janet is in the car. (However, "Pete and Pete" fans know the Petes' dad could make it to Chicago in 18 hours.) This may be one of the few times when the parents actually get something over on Clarissa, as they know it will in fact be a longer drive.

The Evidence - Visual

There is one overwhelming clue in the series. It comes in the episode Educating Janet, where Clarissa is trying to pursuade Janet to go back to working at the children's museum. Clarissa brings in an envelope full of letters from the young children at the museum asking Janet to come back. There's an address clearly visible on the envelope:

Other Places They Mention

There is a Winnemucca Lake in Nevada. Expanding their abbreviations, the 1994 Webster's Geographical Dictionary says it's a "lake about 20 miles long in northwest Nevada, about 6 miles east of Pyramid Lake; often dry." So while Winnemucca Lake is real (if not always wet), Lake Winnemucca may be fictional.

It may not really be the same thing as Lake Winnemucca, especially since in the pictures we've seen of it looks much smaller and more permanent. In many ways, the photos look much more like "The North Woods" area of Wisconsin and Michigan State; both a relatively short distance north of Chicago. This would be a very popular holiday destination for families living in the evirons of Chicago.


Choose: onwards to Clarissa's carear plans, or back to Clarissa Explains It All front page.
Bevis King <B.King@ee.surrey.ac.uk>
24th July 1995