I'm sure this has been addressed before, but the best guess at where Hooterville is located is found in the episode when a tripe to France is offered to the Hooterville farmers. At the airport, Oliver questions why it will take so long to fly to Chicago and Mr. Haney says it's because Hooterville is almost 300 miles from Chicago.

Yeah, I always thought that Hooterville was in Illinois, only because they reference Chicago so much. I heard one time that it was in Virginia, and I was like, I don't think so, it's only 300 miles from Chicago!

Yeah, I always thought that Hooterville was in Illinois, only because they reference Chicago so much. I heard one time that it was in Virginia, and I was like, I don't think so, it's only 300 miles from Chicago!

You don't have to travel very far north or east to be outside of Illinois.

*IF* you wish to reference the “Return to Green Acres” reunion movie in 1991 (YMMV), Sam Drucker gave Hooterville’s ZIP code as something like 40523-and-a-half. That would place it in Kentucky.

I guess there are spots in KY that are 300 mi from Chicago. Take it all with a mountain of salt!

cd

Hooterville is about 50 miles west of Mayfield.

Hooterville is about 50 miles west of Mayfield.

Hey—idea! Let’s call Gov. Carstairs or State Sen. Talbot—-they are one and rhe same anyway!

cd

A couple of things to keep in mind regarding origins of Hooterville, though not necessarily telling or otherwise helpful:

1) Paul Henning's wife grew up in Missouri and the ideas of the Petticoat Junction little hotel, train, etc. had their roots in her childhood.

2) One of the original proposed titles for the Petticoat Junction series was "Ozark Widow," indicating the Okark Mountains / Ozark Plateau / Ozark Highlands -- which are found stretching through several states.

^ Yeah, based on that, the location “mo” would swing to MO!

That zip code reference in the movie shoulda been left out. In addition to the reference, the writers totally didn’t understand Haney. Sure he was shady like a used car salesman, but he would NEVER stoop to downright larceny/extortion/cohoots with city “gangsters”.

cd

For some reason I always wanted to think Iowa or Kansas, it just looked like there for some reason lol