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This article is about the fictional town in which Clark Kent lives. For the article about the television show itself, see Smallville (TV series)
"This is Smallville, land of the weird, home of the strange." -Chloe Sullivan
Smallville sign

Smallville's Welcome Sign

Smallville, Kansas

Smallville, Kansas

Smallville is a rural town in Lowell County, Kansas, USA. Despite being rural it is in the same metro area as Metropolis. It was named after Ezra Small, who founded the town in 1831. The Kent family has lived on their family farm in Smallville since 1871.

A major corn basket of the state, Smallville gained nationwide infamy after being devastated twice by two meteor showers within just two decades, one in 1989 and another in 2005, both scattering large quantities of radioactive meteor rocks around the town. Unknown to the locals, crash-landing among the 1989 meteor shower was an alien spaceship carrying the Kryptonian orphan Kal-El, who was adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent and raised as their son Clark Kent. Clark lived in Smallville until well after he graduated from high school in 2005, along with his neighbor and romantic interest Lana Lang, as well as his childhood friends Chloe Sullivan and Pete Ross.

The powerful LuthorCorp operated a fertilizer plant in Smallville since the 1990s. Billionnaire heir Lex Luthor moved into the Luthor Mansion at the town's outskirt in 2001, and his father Lionel also lived there intermittently. Chloe's cousin Lois Lane came to live on the Kent farm in late 2004, moved into the town center in 2005 and lived there until 2011.

Overview[]

Smallville is located near Granville and Edge City and within driving distance of Metropolis which is only one or two hours away from Smallville,[1] and 425 miles from Hub City. The population in 1989 before the meteor shower was 25,001.[2] The population in late 2001 is 45,001.[3] The local newspaper is the Smallville Ledger, and the local television/radio station is called KRAC. There is a fertilizer production facility of LuthorCorp located in the outskirt of Smallville, known as LuthorCorp Fertilizer Plant Number Three. The state-funded Central Kansas A&M University is also located very near to Smallville.

Smallville was proud of its agricultural tradition and used to grow 20 percent of the state's corn. It was nicknamed the "Creamed Corn Capital of the World" until the meteor shower in 1989, after which it became the "Meteor Capital of the World". Life in Smallville is centered on the town center's Main Street, as it has been for two hundred years. Generation after generation has used the same bank, gas station and public library. There are many family-owned farms and acres of cornfields. The town borders Morley Reservoir, which supplies the Elbow River that traverses the town. The town has played host to the Lowell County Fair and holds an annual Harvest Festival with a beauty pageant where the townspeople crown a local girl as "Miss Sweet Corn".

When the meteor shower of 1989 hit Smallville, the townspeople were celebrating the Smallville Crows' homecoming game victory. The meteors hit the parading crowds, inflicting serious casualties and destruction to the town, while also scattering around large quantities of radioactive green kryptonite that later caused all sorts of mutations to the town's citizens. Among the meteors that struck Riley and Miller's Field was the spaceship bearing the extraterrestrial infant Kal-El across space from the doomed planet Krypton. The Kent couple crashed their truck and encountered the boy, whom they adopted as their own son, naming him Clark.

Smallville itself changed dramatically in the years following the first meteor shower. It was dubbed "America's Weirdest Town" by a national news magazine and it seemed that strange, unexplainable things were always taking place in the quiet hamlet that seemed so normal on the surface. Bizarre occurrences — such as a 150-pound tomato, a golden retriever that gave birth to a two-headed puppy, and the miraculous recovery of a critically ill woman given no chance to survive by her doctors — became increasingly common in Smallville.

Just as the Smallville locals began to put the haunted memories of 1989 behind them, another meteor shower struck Smallville in Summer of 2005, followed by a deadly attack by two seemingly unstoppable alien warriors, and a widespread blackout that affected the entire Earth originated from the town in 2006. Later in 2007, there was a flood from the local Reeves Dam breaching caused by a shapeshifting phantom, a mass amount of mutilated corpses buried by a transformable monster around 2008-2009, a superpowered alien army led by a militaristic madman wrecking the town in 2010, and lastly a fiery planet led by a cosmic dark lord almost crashed into Earth in 2011. All calamities were stopped by Clark Kent and his allies.

Residences[]

Public Facilities[]

  • Smallville High School is the town's local high school for Year 9 to 12. The school's varsity football team, the Smallville Crows, is essentially the town's district team.
  • Smallville Medical Center is the town's main healthcare facility.
  • Smallville Sheriff Station is the local police station in Smallville.
  • The Smallville Ledger is the town newspaper for Smallville and the surrounding area.
  • The KRAC is the local television station for Smallville and other surrounding towns of Lowell County.
  • Smallville Savings and Loan is the local bank at Smallville.
  • Smallville Retirement Center is an assisted-living facility for the town's elderly retirees.
  • Smallville Cemetery is the final resting place for many of the town's residents. It is adjacent to the Kent Farm and the Potter Ranch.
  • Smallville Library is the town's local library. Eight grader Clark super speded to the library to get Chloe the Tales of the Weird & Unexplained book.

Businesses[]

  • LuthorCorp Fertilizer Plant #3 is located on the old site of the Ross Creamed Corn, and employs 2,500 local Smallville residents.
  • The Talon is a popular coffeehouse on Main Street converted from an old movie theater, and has become the local hangout for teens since early 2002.
  • The Smallville Beanery was the popular local coffee shop until the Talon opened in late 2001. The Beanery's owner waged a business war to purge the Talon from competition, but instead had itself shut down after being exposed to have numerous health code violations.
  • Nell's Bouquet was a flower shop owned and operated by Nell Potter, until she sold the business and moved away to Metropolis after getting married.
  • Fordman's Department Store is owned and operated by George Fordman (until his death in 2002) and Betty Fordman.
  • The Antique Shop is a shop that was run by Rose Greer, Tina Greer's mother.
  • The Smallville Lanes is a small bowling alley in the town center.
  • Frank's Auto Repair is an automobile repair shop.
  • Smallville Body and Fender is an automobile repair shop.
  • Hampshire Jewelers is a jewelry store owned by Ms. Hampshire. Clark and Chloe went there to try on jewelry. Clark stole a pair of ruby earrings while under the influence of red Kryptonite. (Temptation)

Other Locations[]

  • Creekside Foundry is an abandoned ironwork building no longer in use and with a high meteor rock content. Greg Arkin lived close to it and had a tree house in which he, Clark Kent and Pete Ross would play when they were in grade school. As freshmen, Clark Kent fought a meteor-infected Greg in the foundry and Greg was accidentally crushed under falling machinery. (Metamorphosis)
  • Melville Family Nursery is a organic vegetables greenhouse belonging to the family of Jodi Melville.
  • Nash Construction is an industrial warehouse owned by Brendan Nash's father. Brendan later coerced his father to convert the warehouse into a miniature version of the Smallville High School so he could kidnap some of his schoolmates.

Geography[]

Smallville contains several geographical landmarks in which memorable events happened to its citizens.

Geography[]

Smallvillemap

A map of Smallville, from smallville.warnerbros.com

  • Smallville Dam is where Clark Kent saved Eric Summers from a suicidal fall during a school trip, as well as Chloe and Lana when Ian Randall tried to throw them over. The Dam protects the Morley Reservoir and controls the flow into the Elbow River separating the town from LuthorCorp Plant.
  • Reeves Dam is also located in or near Smallville.
  • Miller's Bend is an area of land owned for thousands of years by the Native American tribe called the Kawatche. Lionel Luthor purchased the land and planned to build an office park.
  • The Kawatche Caves are located below Miller's Bend, and considered a sacred place by the indigenous Kawatche people. In light of the "Save the Caves" petition led by Lana Lang and Henry Small (and secretly aided by Lex Luthor), the state decided to exercise the Historic Artifacts Amendment and buy it out from LuthorCorp for 30 cents on the dollar.
  • Burnham Woods is the forest area surrounding the infamous Crater Lake. (Presumably it is named in homage to the "Great Birnam Wood" in Macbeth)

Fields[]

  • Riley Field is the field near Smallville Fertilizer Plant #3. This is also the location where a young Lex Luthor was injured and rendered bald after a near-direct hit from a meteor during the meteor shower of 1989.
  • Lawson's Field is where the Smallville Crows traditionally placed a fellow student as a Scarecrow.
  • Chandler's Field is an area with a windmill on the outskirts of Smallville where Metropolis can be seen. Lana Lang was rescued by Clark Kent when, exposed to the Nicodemus flower, she climbed up the windmill and fell off. Also, Chloe Sullivan was kidnapped and buried alive under the windmill and had to be rescued by Clark. Evan Gallagher Sutherland requested to see the view from the top before he died. However, upon reaching the top, he aged so rapidly, he caused an explosion and destroyed the windmill. The field is ten miles due West of Smallville High School.
Pilot3 010

Miller's Field

Agelessws 004

Evan's Field

  • Evan's Field is a field in Smallville where a mutated human later known as Evan Gallagher vaporized his mother to come into the universe, after which he was found in a crater to be found by Clark Kent and Lana Lang. They named the boy Evan after the site where they had found him.
Lander's Field

The black ship in Lander's Field.

  • Lander's Field is a small field where the Black Ship crash-landed. It was also the crash site for the LuthorCorp helicopter that was carrying Lana Lang during the 2005 meteor shower.
  • Mayer's Field is the field from which Lex Luthor was abducted shortly before Dark Thursday.

Bodies of Water[]

Gorges[]

  • Shuster's Gorge is the deepest meteor crater in Smallville and the place where Sasha Woodman was stung by over a thousand bees.
  • Saunder's Gorge is the gorge in which Perry White jumped in order to prove that Clark Kent had super powers and would save him. Pete and Chloe attempted to jump the gorge as well.
  • Carlton Gorge is the gorge in which Dawn Stiles crashed her car. It contains an abundance of meteor rocks: Chloe reveals this gorge as being the place for "the mother load of all meteor rock."

Notes[]

  • Both Smallville, Kansas and Lowell County, Kansas are fictitious.
  • Smallville's ZIP code, 67524, is the real life ZIP code of Chase, Kansas.
  • The exact location for Smallville proper in the State of Kansas has never been specifically revealed in any episode in the series. Different writers have written episodes either placing it in the center or on the eastern side of the state.
  • In the Season Six finale Phantom, Lois Lane discovers that the coordinates 38°52'N, 95°32'W lead to Reeves Dam, which is outside of Smallville's city limits. These coordinates in real life are in the extreme northeastern corner of Osage County, Kansas, near the town of Richland. In the Season Seven episode Sleeper, Chloe is looking at a satellite view for Metropolis: in reality she is viewing aerial shots to Kansas City, Kansas. So, if Smallville fans have Kansas City, Kansas as their de facto Metropolis substitute, a Richland location for a Smallville setting is therefore plausible. The real life distance or quickest drive between Richland and Kansas City is 61 miles or an hour and two minutes away. From this location or somewhere in the vicinity, a Smallville resident could make a "two-hour drive" to Metropolis if they take Kansas State Highway 10 or K-10 for a majority of their route.
  • Along with Hub City, Metropolis, Gotham City, Keystone City, Blüdhaven, Coast City and Themyscira, Smallville is one of the confirmed DC Comics locales to be present in the multiverse of Smallville.
  • The Lemaris pound is a direct reference to Lori Lemaris, Superman's mermaid girlfriend from the comics.
  • Likely due to the show's name, nearly all episodes have scenes set in Smallville. Exceptions to this rule are the episodes Prey, Absolute Justice, Part 1, Absolute Justice, Part 2, Dominion and Prophecy.

In the Comics[]

SmallMetroLocation

Map from Superboy Vol 2 #22 (October, 1981), showing the then locations of Smallville and Metropolis.

The town of Smallville was introduced in More Fun Comics #101 (January, 1945). For decades, Smallville was depicted as being located near Metropolis. However, the John Byrne reboot in the late 1980s firmly located Smallville in Kansas (while Metropolis is on the East Coast).

See also[]

  • Main Street - A list of locally-owned businesses utilized by the community.
  • Meteor showers - The signature events impacting the town.

References[]

  1. (in Abyss Chloe Sullivan mentions that it was "something like" a two hour commute. Whether this was one way travel time or round trip wasn't made clear)
  2. The Smallville welcome sign from the Pilot says POP.: 25,001"
  3. The Smallville welcome sign from the Pilot says "POP.: 45,001"
  4. Recruit
  5. Dichotic
  6. Covenant

External links[]

Places in Smallville
Smallville Crater LakeHigh SchoolKawatche CavesKent Farm (barn, house, storm cellar) • Luthor MansionLuthorCorp Fertilizer Plant Number ThreeMain Street (Beanery) • Medical CenterMiller's FieldTalon (apartment, basement)
Metropolis Ace of ClubsBelle ReveCadmus LabsC&L's apartmentDaily PlanetIsis FoundationGeneral HospitalLuthorCorp Plaza (Level 33.1) • Queen TowerSuicide SlumsSummerholt InstituteUniversityWatchtower
Other Black CreekCheckmate CastleD.E.O. headquartersEgyptFortress of SolitudeGotham City (Arkham Asylum, Batcave, Wayne Manor) • GranvilleS.T.A.R. LabsStar CityThemyscira
Planets AlmeracApokolipsEarth-1Earth-2Earth-MajesticKrypton (Kandor, New Krypton, Phantom Zone) • MarsOa
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