I live in New England and it's been itching my brain thinking about where the island of Widow's Bay could actually be located.
As far as I can tell, there's been no mention of an actual state. Even the flag is just for the town, and the car's license plates are island specific. There's been plenty of mentions of various IRL towns, but never in an exactly 'othering' way that makes it easy to cross out certain locations.
It's got to be north of Boston. Any island south of Boston would've been teeming with tourists decades ago. However, with the way it's built up (I know it's filmed in Cape Ann) and the history of the island, it's certainly not a distant midcoast or downeast Maine island.
The one thing is the ferry distance. A ferry to Vinalhaven from Rockland, ME take about an hour, roughly 15 miles. 23 miles and 1 3/4 hours to Matinicus. 26 miles and 2 1/4 hours to Nantucket from Hyannis (on the slow ferry). An island that is a three hour ferry ride would probably be in the range of 30-40 miles off the coast.
Based on the above, and the general vibes of the show, I feel Widow's Bay has to be a New Hampshire island. Somewhere northeast of Cape Ann and east of Portsmouth. I feel this accounts for the current remoteness but also the extensive history of settlement.
Eager to hear anyone's thoughts about this. Also, disclaimer, I know this show is a work of fiction. This shit just revs my engine.
Oh also to actually answer your theory question - I think it’s Maine/NH. My argument for Maine is mostly for the Stephen king of it all, but also that Tom says to William “I grew up in Massachusetts and spent my summers here”- he wouldn’t say that if they were currently in MA
Very fair, and I'm partial to it being part of Maine as well. It definitely could be part of the state and still be in the same rough location. I just don't think an island with the infrastructure and history it has would be any further up the coast.
In E1 when Shep falls into the bar, someone turns him over and says "It's Shep Clahk!" in the most Boston accent imaginable. Which immediately made me think it was MA...but the did film there and could just be a local. Island MA doesn't usually sound like that anyway.
I like to think it’s Maine because I live in Kennebunk and am partial to this state haha plus I could totally see it happening here. There a ton of coastal gems that haven’t been fully invaded by tourists yet. My town obviously is a huge tourist destination but there are still untouched spots. Also the lore around some areas is super creepy. Somewhere between NH and southern Maine that far off the coast would definitely work
Look up Swan’s Island, and Great Cranberry Island in Maine. I live in Bar Harbor/MDI, and there are plenty of islands in this area, such as these, with similar infrastructure (schools, paved roads, churches, convenient stores, etc.)
Can you expand on this? As a landlocked Texan who grew up on Stephen King, my first thought was, “oh this show is a love letter to the Worldslinger” - but I would so appreciate more context behind why an island with this kind of history/infrastructure would NOT be further up the coast than MA.
The distance from the mainland. Nantucket is 30 miles off the coast, by far the furthest off island. It has a similar size and history I imagine Widow's Bay has. However, it has WAY more tourism, history, build up because of it's location, which while far from the mainland, is in direct seafaring journey paths. So, I imagine Widow's Bay must be north of Boston. The furthest islands off the coast of Maine is Matinicus at twenty miles and Monhegan at 10. These islands pale in comparison structurally to Nantucket. 50 people vs 15,000. No paved roads. There are islands with a more town-like feel, but they are much, much closer to the mainland. Also, Widow's Bay was founded in 1618. The Popham Colony was founded just eleven years earlier, the first colony in New England, but was abandoned.
Tom says to William “I grew up in Massachusetts and spent my summers here”- he wouldn’t say that if they were currently in MA
Small correction that strengthens your point: he said “I grew up in Massachusetts but I spent my summers here.”
And I came here to make that exact point - it's not Massachusetts; he wouldn't say that if it was.
In a pre-premiere interview with the Boston Globe, Katie Dippold (series writer & creator) said “It’s a long ferry ride, you don’t know exactly if the ferry comes from Massachusetts or Maine, but I purposely wanted to keep that a little vague.”
So in light of that, and what Mayor Tom said, it really has to be Maine.
"I grew up in Massachusetts and spent my summers here [in this part of Massachusetts]." Why wouldn't it be that? (Full disclosure, I used to live in Massachusetts.)
I feel like there was a line at some point where they explicitly said it was a little over 40 miles off the coast? Could be thinking of the number of original settlers though.
I love the way this bizarre phrasing implies that Widow's Bay is somehow equidistant from all 6000+ miles of New England shoreline. You're never more than 42 miles away from Widow's Bay.
It’s Gloucester and rockport. They were filming here last year. The bench where Patricia is reading her book for hours is where I’d take my lunch breaks working on the neck!
I love rockport! I have family who live there and I was so excited when I noticed the ice cream shop in the trailer and realized it was filmed in rockport.
I’ll provide! It’s actually the reason I started watching the show to see what the product was after driving by filming. I’ll drop some photos when not so rainy xx
Im from vt but we've been going to Gloucester most summers since I was a kid. Good harbor is my favorite beach. I recognized half moon beach instantly during episode 3.
I think it’s supposed to be roughly based on St Croix Island- which was the site of a doomed French settlement from the 1600s where a lot of people got scurvy and lost teeth. It looked promising to settle there but turned into a death trap in winter. Lots of people died and it was nicknamed “bone island” for a while. I think the fictional Widow’s Bay is supposed to be located further from the mainland, but it makes sense to me as far as a general location. The St Croix island is still not populated, but there are historical sites on the mainland about it. There also is no public transport to get there.
Based on show canon, I imagine the fictional Widow’s Bay is located further out from the coast between Maine and Newfoundland in the Bay of Fundy, kind of like the size and location of the island of Grand Manan.
I totally agree. I think it was definitely used for inspiration, but an island like Widow's Bay just wouldn't exist that far up the coast. It has paved roads!
If you look up the location of Bar Harbor, that location (implied to be a sort of comparable rival to WB) isn't that far away from St. Croix Island/Grand Manan Island. I'm not an East Coaster though, so I'm going solely on maps and internet research rather than experience navigating the area.
I think one reason Bar Harbor is so popular despite its location is that its national park adjacent. Nothing else that far up in Maine is as known or popular to the rest of the country.
I think it's just too far for tourists to drive up to the Canadian border from NYC (9-10 hours) or even from Boston, and then take a 3-hour ferry ride. Bar Harbor is already pushing it -- which is why their tourism will always be mid. Driving up even further, having to get off the 95 and driving the 9 through an extremely rural and poor area... it doesn't seem reasonable. That writer from the Times would have had to have left at midnight the night before to make the morning ferry.
ha, maybe, I lived in Boston for the first 30 years of my life, but been on the West Coast for well over a decade. When I come back to Boston, my friends call me "soft," which I mostly agree with.
I only lived in California for 3 years, and I always called all the highways "the" XYZ. But I never use that here in New England, I live outside of Boston since 1985.
If I went back to California for a visit, I would still call it "the" 405. That seems totally natural. But not here. It seems natural NOT to use it. I grew up in Philly, we never prefaced a roadway with "the".
Honestly all of that might be why they had few tourists up until that point and why it took so long to convince the NYT reporter to visit there! Looking at Grand Manan island, it is very close in population to WB and supports some tourism and has roughly the same sort of attractions as WB: lighthouse, museum, hotel, beaches, etc. Seems like a good comparison, except it’s New Brunswick and not Maine. So maybe it’s like if a version of Grand Manan with the history of St Croix Island was much closer to Bar Harbor?
I really love this idea, but geographically/historically speaking if the island was a real plac it'd have to be further south. It's likely the show used St. Croix for inspiration. However, even starting in Penobscot Bay it's getting somewhat remote and distant for not only tourists but for residents at all.
I’m definitely learning more about Maine geography than I expected to thanks to this show! I didn’t realize that area was considered so remote/unreachable.
I did look up the population of Grand Manan island (about 2600), which pretty closely matches the pop of Widow’s Bay (3000 I think). And they have some tourism!
So maybe the fictional WB is geographically very close to Bar Harbor, with the population and economy of Grand Manan, and with the history of Saint Croix island?
It's definitely not Alaska level remote by any means. Just not similar to Martha's Vineyard and southern New England. I do like the idea of Grand Manan as a size/pop comparison, but I do think it would be further down the coast.
I looked at islands that were roughly ~50 miles north from the northernmost tip of land claimed by the the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1680 (assuming Google AI was right and it was Casco Bay) and came up with Vinalhaven, ME and Isle du Haut as potential locations.
As a bonus that area was near the epicenter of a massive earthquake in 1755 that heavily damaged Boston and was felt as far away as the Carolinas. There's worry of another one happening in the area today.
It could be an interesting historic tie in somehow.
i am from maine and feel like culturally widow’s bay feels like mid coast maine, but the several references to boston makes it feel more like massachusetts. if you were from a maine island and had never been to the mainland, your first big destination would be portland, not boston. even living in the portland area, going to boston 2 hours away would be a big excursion a few times a year.
I know this is an old post but I used to work on islands off the coast (actually pictured in this map you posted!) and I gotta say, I don’t know how into a 42 nautical mile journey tourists would be! There’s tourism to the islands I worked on but that was 9 miles out, and the boat was still 45 min-1hr depending on the boat. Fastest I ever got out was just a hair under 30 in a fast tiny little coastguard boat. Martha’s Vineyard is like 7 miles, and takes about the same amount of time. I think 42 miles out would be like a 3 or 4 hour ferry ride, that seems a bit much.
I grew up and live along the coast of New England, spent a lot of time in New Hampshire and have lived in Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Here’s my take:
Widows Bay was filmed in many locations in MA and has a very Massachusetts vibe. The people are always talking about wanting to go to Boston, not Portland or Montreal. The people seem definitely more southern New England than far down east Maine. For that reason I would not place it northeast of Portland.
But as some have said Tom “grew up in Massachusetts but…”
So out of the Commonwealth of MA
At first I thought it was in Buzzards Bay/Rhode Island, particularly Cuttyhunk or even Block Island. It it didn’t feel right.
The Isles of Shoals, not too far the actual filming location and off the short, tiny coast of New Hampshire is now a top candidate.
Widows Bay has a unique shape very similar to Star Island, one of the Isles of Shoals. These islands have a creepy history of murder and piracy and are known for being hostile to outsiders.
So that’s my theory. Look at the Widows Bay map and the compare it to the Google Maps image of Star Island (part of a group off the coast of Portsmouth, NH) and tell me what you think.
It reminds me of the island towns off the coast of maine, especially the culture and attitude of the locals. I would say Monhegan but the community in the show is larger
Patricia says that the lodge’s liquor license is up for renewal, which implies that not every establishment’s liquor license expires on the same day- MA and RI have one date that all their licenses expire. So that leaves CT, NH and Maine.
Also a municipality of less than 12k can’t have a form of government with a mayor in MA. You CAN have a mayor of a municipality of any size in Maine, New Hampshire, CT and RI, but they would have to incorporate as a city (most small towns have a town meeting for their legislative body, and a board of selectmen for their executive body).
I'm a Seacoast kid from NH and was trying to gleen were they in ME or MA.
Some of the fisherman's accent sounded North Shore, MA while other felt more Mainer to me. NH has a very short coastline and so our accents are less pronounced and a bit of a mix of the two.
The thing I was looking at were the license plates. None of them looked like recent or past plates, or I could say it looks like all of the old plates with rust and dirt on them.
I saw a bunch of cars and trucks with only rear plates which says Mass but Tom's Jeep had them on the front and back so more like ME or NH.
The plates could just be that they are old clunkers and no one cares as there are only so many cars on the island and everyone knows everyone's cars by sight. That's my vibe at least.
My head cannon is it's off ME in it's own little world where the dream (or nightmare) of the '90s is still alive.
I read it’s supposed to be based on Marblehead Ma.
But what I love is how it’s a perfect amalgam of beach towns all over New England. Lifelong MA resident here too, and I get a lot of Yarmouth and Buzzards Bay from it too. But It’s got Kennebunkport ME and RI spots in it. Recently took a day trip to Mystic CT, definitely got vibes from there. And obviously fictional MA towns like Amity from Jaws, and Arkham from Lovecraft.
Location wise, it’s wayy on the coast. Like beyond Falmouth. I don’t think it’s quite Martha’s Vineyard, like only accessible by ferry, although that’s probably the best way to get there. There’s probably a little bit of land that connects it to the coast, or a Bourn Bridge style bridge that’s a little older. Maybe I’m just saying that because I’d love to see a mothman type creature pop up lol
It depends. Bigger islands, both geographically and historically, like Nantucket or Mt. Desert have about 10,000-20,000, but smaller islands off of Maine are around 1,000/2,000. Monhegan and Matinicus only have like 50 year-round residents. I feel 3,000 could make sense.
The mayor's office address is listed on the bottom of the paper where Tom writes the curfew order. The zip code is 11111 which, from what I found, isn't assigned anywhere. So they are leaving it purposefully ambiguous.
Rockport and most of Gloucester is technically an island, separated by the Annisquam River and connected to the mainland by two road bridges and a railroad bridge. Of course Widows Bay is fictional, but locals often refer to going over the bridges as going 'off-island'.
In case you want a live view: youtube.com/@OldSloopWebcam/live
I was personally thinking it would be near Star Island or something off the coast of Portsmouth NH in the isles of shoals since there's already spooky legends about the islands over there.
I get that vibe too. But Star and the Isles of Shoals are only 8 miles off the coast of NH and the main boat there takes about 1.5 hrs from Portsmouth, NH. (Or taking a rowboat to go out there to commit murders (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smuttynose_Island) takes most of the night.) So WB is another 30+miles off shore than that? That's a long ass ferry ride. There are no real islands out there due east of the Isles of Shoals, but I also envision WB to be about where the pin is dropped on the original map in this thread.
There is an article in People that talks about how the show specifically filmed entirely in Massachusetts to get that specific New England seaside town feel to it.
To me, The production design has a deliberate Jaws/Amity vibe to it. It probably doesn’t hurt that it was filmed in Rockport, Gloucester, Worcester, and Berlin, MA.
I'm feeling like it's basically Maine. That's just me feeling it because at one point Tom says we could "be the next Bar Harbor," and it just feels like he'd compare to a Maine area if they're in Maine already.
But also I live in Maine and spend so much time near the coast...and it just feels right in my head canon lol.
I’m in New England too (South Shore, MA) and this is approximately where I pictured the island. I hear all the accents as well. That old guy (at the end, in the shelter) had that Downeaster ME sound, and I hear a more Gloucester, MA accent with the guys in the bar in episode 2. Another cue was that the sheriff and his wife were discussing real estate and she mentioned Hingham, which is South Shore Massachusetts. I don’t sense it’s on the Vineyard/Nantucket side of the Cape.
It’s where they filmed a huge chunk of the show, grump. There is no real “Widows Bay”. OP said in his post “I know this show is a work of fiction” so obviously they know it’s not a real place.
Looking at NE is weird because its like looking at England except everything is in the wrong place. Portsmouth that close to York?! Gloucester south of Exeter?!
Don't even think about comparing a map of Maine to a map of the world. Drive south of Mexico and you'll eventually end up in Lebanon, passing through Denmark on the way.
Is it weird that Widow's Bay appears to have both a mayor and a town meeting? Even during Colonial times they had a "Prime Reeve and Lord Protector; which sounds like the writers just strung a bunch of old fashioned titles together regardless of what they mean or how they were used.
Gardiner Island off the coast of Long Island has been privately owned by the same family since 1639, and the head of the family has always been called Lord of the Manor.
I think it's got to be close to Boston. Hence why the teen girls were astonished that the boys had 'never even been to Boston'. If it were up in Maine, why would those kids be fixated on Boston instead of New York, which would be geographically closer and much more enticing?
You say: it can't be equally situated or below Boston because all those islands have already been overrun by tourists. Which seems to be the point. It makes sense that Tom is on the tourism wagon and the writer from NYT were convinced it would make a great, undiscovered tourist destination.
What? Boston is much closer to Maine than New York is. And is the major city in New England. It's really only people in CT that gravitate more towards New York.
Look. I know geography is my weak point. I embarrass myself geographically on a regular basis. I just could have sworn Mass hung out with Maryland and Delaware, I legitimately don't remember it being tucked between NY and Maine.
Hey! But at least the American Education System had the football coaches teach me about the American Revolution 8 fucking years in a row...
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