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Does The Shining have a distinct location or is it like Springfield where you can make a good guess but it's never really described?

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It looks like you're asking about the 1980 Stanley Kubrick movie.

In that movie it's not clearly defined the exact location of the hotel. However we are given a few facts to narrow down the location:

The Overlook is located somewhere in the Colorado Rockies.

The Overlook is 25 miles from the nearest town; Sidewinder. Sidewinder however is a fictional town, so this doesn't provide any real help narrowing down the Overlook's location. (Thanks to Raidri for providing this information).

The Overlook is within driving distance from Boulder Colorado (where The family is staying prior to going to the Overlook).

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    The book is only slightly clearer. It's still located somewhere in the Colorado Rockies, but I know the book clearly names the town closest to it (though I'd have to do some digging to find the exact name).
    – onewho
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 13:55
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    The town is Sidewinder, but it is a fictional town, so no help in locating the Overlook.
    – Raidri
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 14:34
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    The exterior of Overlook was Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood in Oregon.
    – John Bell
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 16:15
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    The Overlook was based on a real hotel, The Stanley, located in the Colorado Rockies.
    – Lindsey D
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 20:23
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    ... except for the Darien Gap en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap
    – DaveM
    Commented Oct 3, 2017 at 3:55
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According to this essay:

Kubrick's film claims the Overlook Hotel is built on an Indian burial ground, though this is only mentioned in passing. King's Pet Sematary (1983) does feature such a burial ground, but this novel does not.

We are given few hints to the root of the hotel's evil, if there is a root. King has suggested that the Overlook is a kind of extension of hell, or a pathway to it. By hell, we mean the idea of hell, whatever that means to you.

It's definitely intimately involved with the hell of the mind and the idea of hell on earth. How precisely the Overlook came to be such a place, or how the problems might be connected to the land, are up for interpretation.

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  • Ah i remember the Indian Burial Ground throwaway line now. Seems interesting that they don't give it an actual location .Thanks for the comment!
    – Max Astall
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 13:40
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    I'm not sure how this answers the question. Saying that it's in the same place as some other unknown location doesn't help at all. "Where's John's house?" "It's right in front of his garden!" "OK. But, seriously, where's John's house?"
    – David Richerby
    Commented Oct 2, 2017 at 16:16
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    Additionally, this answer is plagiarized verbatim from shmoop.com/shining-stephen-king/setting.html.
    – Sam Hanley
    Commented Oct 3, 2017 at 16:21
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    If you copy another website wholesale, please remember to (1) put the parts that are not of your own origin into proper quote formatting to denote them as such and (2) include a reference to the original source, preferably with a link.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented Oct 3, 2017 at 17:15

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