Jerusalem's Lot, Maine (often shortened to 'Salem's Lot or just the Lot) is a fictional town and a part of writer

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

's fictional

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

. 'Salem's Lot has served as the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories. It first appeared in King's 1975 novel ''

'Salem's Lot ''Salem's Lot'' is a 1975 American horror fiction, horror novel by author Stephen King. It was his second published novel. The story involves a writer named Ben Mears who returns to the town of Jerusalem's Lot (Stephen King), Jerusalem's Lot ( ...

'', and has reappeared as late as his 2019 novel '' The Institute'' (see list below). The town is described as being located in

Cumberland County Cumberland County may refer to: Australia * Cumberland County, New South Wales * the former name of Cumberland Land District, Tasmania, Australia Canada *Cumberland County, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Cumberland, historic county *Cumberl ...

, between (or including parts of) the towns of Falmouth, Windham, and

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

, near the southern part of the state about 10 miles north of

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

. A map on King's official website, though, places 'Salem's Lot considerably further north, approximately in Northwest Piscataquis. King, a native of

Durham, Maine Durham is a town in Androscoggin County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,173 at the 2020 census. It is included in both the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine Metropolitan New Eng ...

, created a trinity of fictional Maine towns – Jerusalem's Lot, Castle Rock and

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

– as central settings in more than one work.

Origin and inspiration

In ''

Danse Macabre The ''Danse Macabre'' (; ), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory from the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death. The ''Danse Macabre'' consists of the dead, or a personification of death, summoning represen ...

'', King's non-fiction, semi-autobiographical review of horror in all media forms, King states that 'Salem's Lot was largely derived from the town of

; specifically the area in which he resided as a youth known locally as "Methodist Corners." The Marsten House of Salem's Lot was based upon a vacant house of the same name in Methodist Corners; he and his friends had explored the real Marsten House as children.http://www.librosgratisweb.com/pdf/king-stephen/danse-macabre.pdf Pg. 159 Besides the oft-used trinity of Jerusalem's Lot, Castle Rock, and Derry, King has created other fictional Maine towns, including Ludlow in ''

Pet Sematary ''Pet Sematary'' is a 1983 horror novel by American writer Stephen King. The novel was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1984, and adapted into two films: one in 1989 and another in 2019. Background In 1979, King was wr ...

'' and '' The Dark Half'' (unrelated to the real Maine town of

Ludlow Ludlow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road (Great Britain), A49 road which bypasses the town. The town is near the conf ...

), Haven in '' The Tommyknockers'', Little Tall Island in '' Dolores Claiborne'', '' Storm of the Century'' and "Morning Deliveries" (the last of which appeared in the book of short stories called '' Skeleton Crew''), and Chester's Mill in '' Under the Dome''.

Fictional history and myth

The town that would become Jerusalem's Lot was founded in 1710 by a preacher named James Boon, the leader of a cult of schismatic

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

s. The cult became notorious in the region for its open embrace of

witchcraft Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...

and for its amoral sexual practices, including

inbreeding Inbreeding is the production of offspring from the mating or breeding of individuals or organisms that are closely genetic distance, related genetically. By analogy, the term is used in human reproduction, but more commonly refers to the genet ...

.Stephen King, ''Night Shift'', "Jerusalem's Lot" Jerusalem's Lot became an

incorporated town An incorporated town is a town that is a municipal corporation. Canada Incorporated towns are a form of local government in Canada, which is a responsibility of provincial rather than federal government. United States An incorporated town o ...

in 1765, but was abandoned in 1789 after Boon and his followers mysteriously vanished. The mass disappearance occurred not long after Philip Boone, a wealthy individual and unknowing descendant of James Boon, obtained an occultic book known as '' De Vermis Mysteriis''; Philip Boone disappeared along with the rest of the village. When Jerusalem's Lot was incorporated in 1765, Maine was still part of the

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of M ...

. The town got its name from a myth about one of the earliest residents, Charles Belknap Tanner, who raised pigs; one of these pigs was named Jerusalem. One day, Jerusalem escaped from her confines into a nearby forest, and became aggressive and wild. Tanner began warning young children who trespassed on his property to "Keep 'ee out o' Jerusalem's wood lot," lest the pig devour them. Eventually, the phrase "Jerusalem's Lot" was adopted as the town name.Stephen King, ''Salem's Lot'', part 1 chapter 2. At an unknown date sometime after Boone and McCann's exploration, people began inhabiting the town again. The town had a representative named Elias Jointner in the House of Representatives by 1896. As chronicled in the novel ''

'', Jerusalem's Lot has been identified as a residence for great and mysterious evil, particularly vampires.

Literary works set in Jerusalem's Lot

Works that reference Jerusalem's Lot

Television

Jerusalem's Lot appears in episode eight of the King-produced 2018

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

web television series '' Castle Rock''. Henry Deaver's son Wendell takes a bus to Jerusalem's Lot after being sent away from Castle Rock by his father. A traffic sign in the episode indicated that the town was located 24 miles from Castle Rock. The town is the central setting of the second season of the series. The 2021

Epix MGM+ (formerly known as Epix; pronounced ''epics'' and stylized as eᴘix), is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by the MGMPlus Entertainment subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which is itself a subsidiary ...

television series '' Chapelwaite'', starring

Adrien Brody Adrien Nicholas Brody (born April 14, 1973) is an American actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Polish pianist Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski's war drama '' The Pianist'' (2002) becoming the youngest acto ...

and

Emily Hampshire Emily Hampshire is a Canadian-American actress. Her best known roles include Angelina in the 1998 romantic comedy ''Boy Meets Girl (1998 film), Boy Meets Girl'', Vivienne in the 2006 film ''Snow Cake'', Jennifer Goines in the Syfy drama series ' ...

, is based on the short story "Jerusalem's Lot" and novel ''

''.

References

{{'Salem's Lot 'Salem's Lot Cthulhu Mythos locations Fictional populated places in Maine Fictional populated places created by Stephen King Castle Rock (franchise) Fictional elements introduced in 1975