The Smoke-Hole
The Smoke-Hole was a visionary ritual improvised by the Losers' Club in the summer of 1958, drawn from a book Ben Hanscom had checked out of the Derry Public Library. The book, Ghosts of the Great Plains, described how Plains Indian tribes—Paiutes, Pawnees, Kiowas, Otoes, and Comanches—dug a hole in the ground, covered it with branches leaving a small vent, built a fire of green wood to produce thick smoke, and then sat in the smoke until only two or three braves remained. Those who endured were said to receive visions that told the tribe what to do. Ben proposed adapting this ceremony to their own underground clubhouse, and the group agreed to try it on July 17, 1958, a hot, overcast day with thunder in the air.
The Ceremony
The seven children gathered green branches, stripped them of leaves, and collected stones to form a fire ring inside the clubhouse. They built a fire using pages torn from an old Archie comic book as kindling, then added the green wood, which produced a thick, acrid smoke. The clubhouse had a small hinged window that served as the smoke-hole. As the smoke filled the space, the children sat knee to knee, breathing shallowly, their eyes stinging and throats burning. One by one, the weaker members were forced to climb out: Stan Uris was the first to leave, followed by Ben Hanscom, then Eddie Kaspbrak, then Beverly Marsh, and finally Bill Denbrough. Only Richie Tozier and Mike Hanlon remained, enduring the smoke until they slipped into a shared vision.
The Vision
In the vision, Richie and Mike found themselves standing in the Barrens as they had been thousands of years ago—a tropical landscape of giant ferns, strange plants, and a deep, fast-flowing Kenduskeag River. The sky darkened as a burning object fell from the heavens, trailing fire and electricity, striking the earth with an explosion that started a forest fire. They understood that they were witnessing the arrival of It on Earth, long before human settlement. The vision ended with Richie and Mike screaming, and the others had to pull them from the clubhouse, where they were found disoriented and coughing, with torn clothes and scraped knees from their frantic movements during the trance.
Consequences and Significance
The Smoke-Hole ceremony was a pivotal event for the Losers' Club. It gave Richie and Mike direct, experiential knowledge of It's origin as an extraterrestrial or extradimensional entity that had landed in what would become Derry. This knowledge solidified the group's resolve to fight the monster, moving them from fear and speculation toward concrete action. The ceremony also demonstrated the power of shared belief and ritual among the seven children, a power they would later draw upon in their final confrontation with It. The experience left Richie and Mike physically marked—their clothes torn, their bodies bruised—and psychologically shaken, but it also forged a deeper bond between them and confirmed that their collective imagination could access truths beyond ordinary perception. The Smoke-Hole thus served as the catalyst that transformed the Losers' Club from a defensive alliance into an active, purposeful force determined to destroy the entity that had haunted Derry for centuries.
