The Dump
The Dump is the municipal waste disposal site for Derry, Maine, situated at the northeastern edge of the Barrens, a tangled tract of land that separates the town's residential areas from the Kenduskeag Stream. It is a place of perpetual smoke, scavenging seagulls, and the accumulated refuse of the town's daily life. For the children of the Losers' Club, the Dump is a forbidden yet magnetic destination, a landscape of junked cars, rusting appliances, and smoldering debris that serves as both a playground and a site of profound horror.
Geography and Atmosphere
The Dump is located at the end of a rutted dirt track called Old Lyme Street, which runs from Kansas Street into the Barrens. It is surrounded by a "dumpoid belt"—a transitional zone where the underbrush gives way to scattered cans, bottles, and scraps of metal, marking the approach to the main pit. The air is thick with the smell of burning trash and the cries of gulls. A bulldozer, operated by the dumpkeeper Mandy Fazio, is used to push the piles of garbage for burning. The Dump's proximity to the Barrens makes it a natural extension of the children's territory, but its atmosphere is one of decay and menace, a place where the boundary between the ordinary and the monstrous begins to blur.
The Losers' Club at the Dump
The Dump is the site of several key events in the Losers' Club's summer of 1958. It is here that the children, having decided to use Bill Denbrough's Bullseye slingshot to fight It, hold a contest to determine who has the best aim. Beverly Marsh proves to be the most accurate, hitting nine out of ten cans from twenty feet away, a skill that will later prove crucial. The Dump's abundance of targets—cans, bottles, and even rats—makes it an ideal practice ground. The children also scavenge materials from the Dump, including a mahogany door that becomes the roof of their underground clubhouse in the Barrens.
The Death of Patrick Hockstetter
The most harrowing event at the Dump is the death of Patrick Hockstetter. After a confrontation with Henry Bowers, Patrick returns to a discarded Amana refrigerator he has been using as a killing bottle for small animals. When he opens the door, he is attacked by a swarm of flying leeches—a manifestation of It—that drain his blood and drag him, still alive, into the Barrens. Beverly Marsh, who has been hiding nearby, witnesses the attack and later leads the other Losers to the refrigerator, where they find the words "HA HA" written in blood on the inside of the door. This event marks a turning point in the summer, confirming the reality and the predatory nature of the entity they are up against.
Narrative Significance
The Dump functions as a physical and symbolic repository for Derry's waste, both literal and moral. It is a place where the town discards what it no longer wants, and where the monstrous entity It finds a breeding ground for its horrors. For the Losers' Club, the Dump is a space of empowerment—where they test their skills and gather materials—but also a space of confrontation, where they are forced to acknowledge the full extent of the evil that pervades their town. The Dump's destruction during the apocalyptic storm of May 31, 1985, when the Derry Mall (built on the site of the old Kitchener Ironworks) is torn apart by explosions, marks the end of an era and the final dissolution of the physical landscape that shaped the children's nightmare summer.
