Don’t they, in the “Behind the Laughter” episode say that the family is from Kentucky?
Obviously not near an ocean, but…
Yeah, isn’t there an episode where they announce the state Springfield is in at the end? I swear I saw that, and then, in a repeat, they changed the name? Am I right? sometimes I fall asleep in front of the TV and dream up parts of television shows.
I could be crazy but…
Does anyone remember a recent episode in which someone mentions “south of the border” and Homer replies “you mean Tennessee?”
If I heard correctly, that would be more evidence for Kentucky. That could also mean Virginia or Missouri, though.
However I guess I’ll have to go with “nonexistent” since there are plenty of hints in various episodes to contradict that.
They did, and then upon rerunning the episode, the voiceover was changed to “Missouri”, so as not to clear up the confusion.
Nobody is able to figure out what state Springfield is in for the most obvious of reasons; Springfield isn’t in a state.
Springfield is actually located in the middle of Yennan province in the People’s Republic of China. The town was created in the 1950’s as a training camp for Chinese intelligence agents to learn how to function in a typical American setting without blowing their cover. In a nation with over a billion citizens, it’s a trivial matter to run a false town with a few thousand. The “Simpsons” are in fact unaware that they’ve lived their whole lives in China; they believe they are Americans. But in reality they are just small props in a huge lie.
This explains a number of things: the inability to pinpoint exactly where Springfield is; the way people enter and leave town with no apparent explanation; the stupidity and confusion of so many town residents (a product of brainwashing drugs in the water supply); the undercurrents of subversive mockery towards institutions like government, business, religion, and legal authority; the way so many facets of American culture appear slightly off-kilter in this town; and the fact that every one in town has yellow skin.
No one has mentioned all the times the Simpsons have made in-jokes about not know ing where Springfield is.
Like the episode where they are coming to Springfield to film Radiation Man 
(I’m stetting you guys up here, don’t fail me)
“Get me two plane tickets to the state that Springfield is in.”
Or when Apu is studying to be a US citizen and they ask him to find Springfield on the map and Bart’s head gets in the way.
… or the time Marge gave her mailing address over the phone (I think it was to order replacement egg feet from Vincent Price in the Super Bowl episode):
“… Evergreen Terrace… Springfield, O…Hiya Maude!”
And it’s not in Vermont or Washington state, because socialite Evelyn Peters will only eat food flown in overnight from those two states.
Implying that they’re not there, of course.
Close, but not quite. It was the worst school in Missouri.
Not to be a wet blanket, but you do realize you’re veering close to some unpleasant Asian stereotypes there, hmmmm? 
In any event, my vote for where Springfield is located goes to “a microscopic culture living in a petri dish in Matt Groening’s bathroom.” Not unlike that Treehouse of Horror episode with Lisa’s tooth.
I thought that it was settled long ago, that Springfield is in the state of North Tacoma, hence the “NT” abbreviation.
As much as I wish it was in IL its not. Shelbyville IL is quite a ways from Springfield…Springfield is like 2 hours west from where I live and shelbyville is like an hour or 2 south…
I’d say those particular comments were more political stereotyping than racial. The “yellow skin” comment in the next paragraph was where I veered close to racism.
Chronos is correct. It’s on Homer’s license.
As previously stated, the postal abbreviation is NT.
RE-Springfieldians discusssing “other” states
Skinner never says the school was moved out of Missouri. He only says “It was moved here.”. He provides no evidence that Springfield is not IN Missouri.
It’s entirely possible Springfield fought on the wrong side in the Civil War. After all Springfieldians are mostly idiots-except for the Mensans, especially Professor Frink with his lab and robots and the glayvin!
The comment about having food flown in is, evidence. The wording clearly states that food is moved out of those states, and brought to Springfield. Unless, the speaker is completely ignorant of geography. Considering that these women can not pump their own gas and can barely microwave a bowl of soup, it’s possible that they don’t know what state they live in. Evelyn doesn’t think she lives in Washington or Vermont, but she could be wrong.
I vote for Central California
*[7G07] Springfield was founded by a bear-fighting woodsman.
{ls}
[7G13] Springfield has its own International Airport. {ls}
[7F01] The state flag has three horizontal bands, green
above white above red (maybe orange). The state
motto is ‘Not just another state’. {kcc} Springfield
is north of (or uphill of) the state capital.
[7F02] Homer’s social security number is 568-47-0008, and
the 568 prefix is typically issued in California.
[7F03] Springfield is far enough north to get snow (and
for the residents to have plenty of snow-related
equipment), but south enough that six inches of snow
will close the schools.
[7F05] The Springfield Topes faced teams from Shelbyville,
Salem, and Burlington. These would be towns and
small cities from the same area as Springfield.
{kcc}
[There are Shelbyvilles in AR, IL, IN, KY, MI, MO,
TN and TX.]
Capital City is (at least) 220 miles away.
[7F06] Bart attempted to jump Springfield gorge (a la Evel
Knievel) on his skateboard. Typically, gorges are
cut either by glacial action or fast rushing rivers
(see the Grand Canyon). {rd}
[7F08] Springfield is located west of the Mississippi River
since the call letters of the radio station begins
with a ‘K’. {ck} There are some exceptions to the
‘K/W’ rule, though.
[7F09] The Springfield television station is big enough to
have affiliates.
[7F12] Artie says, Woe unto Shelbyville, should they underestimate our strength in dramatic interpretation,'' and later Marge says, You (knew)
the city forensics finals are tomorrow, and you kept
me here until 1am pretending to be stupid?’’ What
does this mean? Possible explanations can be found
in the capsule for 7F12.
[7F15] Selma was wearing a ‘Springfield U’ sweatshirt.
The agency that distributes driver’s licenses is
called the ‘DMV’. The ZIP codes (90701 and 90702)
correspond to Artesia, California.
[7F16] The family drove to Detroit, Michigan within one
week.
[7F17] Grampa has to cross the state border to reach a
casino, so Springfield must be in a state that
borders Nevada or New Jersey. But it can’t be New
Jersey because New Jersey allows casino gambling
only in Atlantic City, which isn’t a border town.
[7F18] The address on the letter is ``Marge Bouvier,
Springfield, USA.’’ {rc}
[7F21] Michigan is the only state that gives dime refunds
(bear in mind that it is a very large bottle,
though)
[7F24] Springfield has a garage/shop called ‘Smog Check’
or something similar. It is the background when
Apu is talking on the phone, finding out about
Michael’s visit. So Springfield must be in a
state that actually enforces emissions laws. {sg}
Route 401 passes through the city. (The highway
reappears in [8F17] and [8F21].)
[8F01] Springfield is near the south-east corner of a state
that is landlocked on the South-east corner.
Moreover, that corner is common to three other state
corners, and there is only one Four Corners in the
USA, suggesting Utah. Unfortunately, the borders at
the corners are crooked, whereas in the real USA,
they’re straight. And {ag} points out that that
region of Utah is VERY desolate.
The state abbreviation on the map was 'NT', {cpc}
although the address on the junk mail was 'TA'. {rm}
They flew into Dulles.
[8F02] [Raymond Chen] Lisa was watching the Carson show,
despite having a hard time staying up until
midnight (c.f. [8F05]).
Perhaps this is the Central/Mountain time zone?
[8F04] The map on which the TV reporters have marked the
lethality zones clearly shows Springfield to be a
city on the West side of the mouth of a river which
flows South. {dg2}
[8F14] Spanish conquistadors roamed the Rancho Relaxo area.
[8F17] The state Springfield is in has a lottery, for which
the odds of winning are 1 in 380,000,000. (I.e.,
choose 6 of 83.) The state also contains
Swartzwelder County.
[8F20] Sideshow Bob and Selma walk along an ocean beach.
[8F21] Otto’s driver’s license looks a hecukvalot like the
California driver’s license. Complete with the
useless dot in the corner. (Yes, I know it’s not
useless.)
[8F22] Samantha says they moved from Phoenix, but doesn’t
say ``Arizona’’. So they might be in Arizona…
[8F24] Krusty drives Bart & Lisa to Tijuana.
[9F01] Homer drives his car off a dock in Springfield
Harbour, only to learn the garbage barge he landed
on is headed to Garbage island.
[9F02] Lisa welcomes a boatload of immigrants in
Springfield Harbour, only to learn that they’re
being deported.
[9F05] The Simpsons’ house faces south.
[9F07] Springfield is in a part of the country where snow
is common.
[9F08] Captain McAllister is attacked by a shark on a house
boat.
[9F10] Marge drives to North Haverbrook, a city in the
mid-west.
Kent says Springfield's zip code is 90201. TP
Uschanov (uschanov@cc.joensuu.fi) points out that
90201 is also used for Cerritos, CA, not just
Artesia, and that 90701 is Cudahy, Bell and Bell
Gardens, CA. All these towns are in Los Angeles
county.
[9F14] [HndsomPete] Homer’s license has his zip code as
49007. This is the zip code for Kalamazoo, MI.
[9F18] The following states have ``rattlesnake roundups’’:
TX KS PA OK AL GA FL [Does anyone have a full list?]
[9F20] Springfield is 648 miles from Mexico City.
There are Brockways in: CA, CT, MD, MI, MT, NY, OH,
OR, PA. There are no Ogdenviles or North
Haverbrooks, though.
[1F06] Homer, Ned, Bart and Todd drift towards an offshore
oil rig. This oil rig is shown on Krusty Burger fun
map to be near NY.
[1F08] Springfield has a boardwalk.
[1F17] In this ep, we saw that OFF’s neighbourhood and
Martin’s have fenced-in backyards without alleys,
endemic to the southern California suburbs. {th}
[1F18] Springfield is near an ocean.
[2F01] The family drove to Itchy & Scratchy Land.
[2F02] In this episode, Springfield Prison appears to be
on an island that is similar to Alcatraz Island.
Springfield is within driving distant of Archie's
Riverdale.
[2F04] Springfield has a lighthouse commanded by Captain
McAllister.
[2F07] Abe shows Homer the place where he grew up. Sources
place Homer’s birthplace in North Carolina, so
Springfield could be in NC. {bw}
[2F08] Homer search for a new watering hole leads him to
the Cheers Bar – which is in Boston, Massachusetts.
The airplane that Homer and Marge were in crashes
into the ocean on take off.
The border states already have killer bees.{th}
[Compare to [2F19]]
[2F10] They go to the beach.
[2F13] The plane trip took 22 hours (minus time
difference). {ddg} (FYI, a trip (direct) from LA to
Sydney takes 14 hours. {jac} [and Philly to Seattle
takes 12 hours --ed])
[2F15] [Aaron Varhola]: The airport they fly into is the
National Airport in Washington.
[2F16] ``[Springfield is] not in one of the states which
once belonged to Mexico, since in those states, the
mineral rights belong to the state.’’{th}
``[Grampa's earthquake preparedness] suggests that
Springfield is along the Pacific Rim, or perhaps in
southeastern Missouri.''{th}
[2F19] ``Fort Springfield was the site of a Civil War
battle, suggesting it’s in the southeast quadrant of
the U.S.’’{th}
``...the architecture at the fort suggests its more
of the type of Great Plains fort used in wars
against American Indians. It was a Union fort since
its troops wore blue.''{th}
``killer have arrived in Springfield, suggesting its
in one of the states which borders Mexico.''{th}
[Compare to [2F08]]
[2F21] Medfly spraying is done only in California.{th}
[2F22] ``Lemons only grow in the southern parts of the
U.S., and overland settlers generally came from the
east.’’{th}
Springfield borders Shelbyville.
[2F31] Jay Sherman takes a plane from New York City to
Springfield.
[2F32] ``…The hospital looks like the right size for a
city of about 50,000; or perhaps a smaller city with
a large tributary area.’’{th}
[3F02] According to:
http://everest.ento.vt.edu/~idlab/vegpests/vegfs/cpb.html,
the Colorado potato beetle is not in California or
Nevada, and mainly concentrates on the eastern
portion of the US.
[3F04] Norman Vincent Peale’s birthplace was destroyed. He
was born in Bowersville, Ohio.{th}
[Greg R Hasty] The Simpsons go to Pennsylvania.
[3F05] Homer’s state has daylight savings time. Some
mountain zone states do not. (Anyone know which
ones?)
[3F06] [Dave Kathman] ``Walt Whitman is buried in Harleigh
Cemetery in Camden, New Jersey…’’
[Dominik Halas] ``The bird that lands on Homer's
head is an American White Pelican; they are
generally not found east and north of the
Mississippi River valley and Florida.''
[3F07] ``The Port Authority…is a significant agency only
in New York City-Northeastern New Jersey.’’{th}
``Mrs. Van Houten said Mechanicsburg without naming
a state, suggesting that it's the same state that
Springfield is in, probably Pennsylvania.''{th}
[There's a Mechanicsburg in IL, IN, MS, OH, PA, and
WV. But Mechanicsburg, PA is probably popular
enough not to need the state.]
[3F08] Springfield has alkali flats and badlands.
[3F08] George Bush lived in the following states:
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio, Texas, Virginia,
Maine. [Benjamin Robinson]
You might be able to add the following:
NJ (Princeton), DC (not a state, but might count),
NY (longshot. Bush lived in a suburb of New York
City and met Barbara there.)
[3F10] ``[Springfield] appears to be in one of the states
where dress codes are legal.’’{th}
[3F11] ``Japanese internment camps were almost all in
California.’’{th}
Lisa infers that Ogdenville has a sales tax.
[But it's also at least 341 miles from Springfield.
That's far enough to be out of state. --ed]
[3F13] [Mark Richey] ``The 1796 founding date would seem to
put it somewhere between the Appalachian Mountains
and the Louisiana territory, probably in the
Kentucky/Ohio/Indiana 0region. However, as far as I
know, they didn’t have buffalo that far east.’’
Springfield was created before the Louisiana
purchase.{jh}
[Mark Richey]: Buffalo were mostly on the plains,
although it's too wooded to be there.
Settlers mistook a phrase in the bible and headed
west from Maryland.
Kearney talks about the tall ships as being unusual.
From my (limited) experience, most port towns have
tall ships fairly frequently.
There's a Stenchburg(?) in the state. (There's no
Stenchburg, but there's a Stinking Bay, AR and a
Stinking Creek, TN)
[3F15] Route 18 is mentioned.
[3F17] [Jose Lafaurie] Springfield appears to be on Pacific
Daylight time (or Mountain Standard).
``Bart and the kids started their trip in a state
with a lot of cornfields and prairies, which
indicates a Midwestern state.''{jh}
``If they visited Branson, MO, along the way,
Springfield's state probably wouldn't be east of the
Mississippi since they took an easterly (or
southerly, at some point) route.''{jh}
[3F20] Springfield does not appear to be in a coastal
state when Lisa points to it.{jh}
[3F21] Springfield is no less than 30 mi from Capitol City.
[3F22] [Aaron Varhola] ``We can also assume OFF didn’t go
through Ohio or South Carolina, the fireworks
capitals of America, on their trip.’’
[I'm not sure about South Carolina, but in Ohio, it
is illegal for Ohio residents to purchase fireworks
(you also can't transport them across state lines),
so ALL fireworks would be illegal.]
[3F23] Hank tells Homer to call him if he’s ever on the
East Coast.
Redwood trees (apparently endemic to Cypress Creek)
are only found in the Pacific Northwest.
Cypress Creek is ``upstate,'' suggesting a vertical
state.
[3F24] [Dale G. Abersold]: Springfield slopes toward the
west, where there is a harbor, perhaps implying the
west coast?
There are Cypress Creeks in: FL, LA, MD, NC, SC, TX.
[3G01] Springfield is in the nations heartland.
[3G03] According to the July 10, 1998 News of the Weird
(Copyright 1998 by Universal Press Syndicate), the
following states have engaged in child sales:
MD, AZ, FL
[4F03] Springfield is in a state founded by circus
freaks. {hl}
[4F05] The conductor doesn’t initially mention the state
that Springfield is in, so presumably it’s in the
same state as the Harvard-Yale game. Larry offers
``local cactus.’’
[4F06] [Dominik Halas] Lisa said she wanted to clean an
otter at the beach; sea otters are only found on the
west coast, indicating that Baby Seal Beach is on
the west coast, and thus Springfield, in this
episode, is near the west coast.
[4F07] Hurricanes are most likely to strike the east coast,
typically beween NC and FL. {bjr}
Ned talks about people ``back east.''
[4F08] [Dale G. Abersold] Presumably not in Oklahoma or New
York (both states referred to).
[4F10] [Dale G. Abersold] Mt. Useful resembles many of the
larger moutains in the Pacific Northwest.
[4F11] Lupe Velez (who died in Los Angeles) bought her
toilet in Springfield.
[4F14] If OFF’s house does indeed face south, the
Springfield river is to the East.
[4F15] Jake Schultz notes that there are many references to
Massachusetts and Boston in this episode.
[4F16] Bart’s area code may be one of the following:
112 {jh}, 503 {db}, 513, 518, 613, 618
[4F17] The following states have 5 cent refunds:
CT, IA, ME, MA, NY, OR, and VT{av}
[Mike Rumerman] Burns catches some whales in his
omni-net.
[4F18] [Marc Wasserman] The Tokyo plant is open when the
library is open, suggesting that there is a
difference of less than 14 hours if the library is
open 8-5.
[4F21] [Joseph J. Barder] ``…Springfield’s either in
California or a state nearby. Otherwise, why would
they believe they’re going to Disneyland by
car…?’’*
Whoa…
Not true. In Ohio, it’s legal to buy fireworks, but not to set them off. The official rationale is that people might buy them in Ohio and transport them to other states where they’re legal. The real reason is that the fireworks laws are absolutely never enforced, so locals just buy them and set them off in their own backyard.
As others have said, there is no answer to this. Not only is it fictional but the creators were sort of kidding when they said there were clues in each episode. Yes, there are totally conflicting clues. Its become part of the whole self-derpricating in-joke. Marge saying, “Springfield, Oh Hi-ya Maude” being an overtly obvious example.
For what its worth, Matt Groening once said that he chose ‘Springfield’ because that’s where ‘Father Knows Best’ was set (he felt that The Simpsons was their evil twin).