Overview
Riverdale is usually shown as being a medium-sized town (possibly a suburb of a bigger city), with all the usual amenities of shopping malls, restaurants, and parks. The climate, appearance and geography of Riverdale varies from story to story. Riverdale has been shown to have beaches, lakes, rivers, farmland, woodland, mountains, plains, a transit system (as noted in the Josie and the Pussycats film) and four distinct seasons with changes in climate. The population is fairly friendly.
While Riverdale's location was never clearly defined, there have been many clues over the years. It has a beach (and therefore is a likely a coastal city) and receives snow in the winter. Riverdale has never faced earthquakes or hurricanes, although one plot from the 1990s involves a tornado hitting Riverdale. There does seem to be a river passing through the city because in one story, "The Roly Poly Robber," a bridge is shown connecting two districts of the city. The city is, however, not home to any major port or dockyard. Some portions of the city are hilly.
Often, clues as to its location that appear in certain stories contradict others. In one story, Riverdale is shown on a small map as being in about the same place as Des Moines, Iowa. One plot in the 1990s involved Jughead possibly being forced to move to Ohio, in which Betty, looking at a map, comments that Ohio is extremely far away. Another story says that the beach is not on the ocean, but rather on a lake with no other land in sight, perhaps one of the Great Lakes (there is at least one real Riverdale in that area). In the live-action film adaptation (Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again), Riverdale is explicitly portrayed as being located in California.
In issue no. 74 of Archie's Pals and Gals double digest, several hints are given as to where Riverdale calls "home". These hints are as follows: eight states surround this one, which is located in the mid west. If you know where the "show me" state is, you know where to start looking. Half of the people that live in the United States live within 500 miles of this place. There's an indoor water park here, and an outdoor water park too! If you're looking near Hannibal, you're too far north. Archie's favorite thing: go-carts. Lots of go-carts! You can ride a riverboat here. Or a bumper boat. If you're looking near Kansas city, you're still too far north. Like music? We've got music!
In one of the issues of Archie and Jughead Digest, when one of the readers wrote in with the question of "Where is Riverdale located?", the editor replied that "Riverdale is more of a state of mind than an actual physical location. It could be anywhere that kind people live and just have fun, like Archie and his friends. It could be in the Midwest, or along the Eastern Seaboard, or even a town in Canada, Mexico, or England."
Read more about this topic: Riverdale (Archie Comics)