Abel Janszoon Tasman was a Dutch seafarer and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company. He was the first known European explorer to reach the islands of Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand, to sight the Fiji islands. Tasman originated from Lutjegast, a small village in the province of Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands; the oldest available source mentioning him is dated 27 December 1631 when, as a seafarer living in Amsterdam, the 28-year-old became engaged to marry 21-year-old Jannetje Tjaers, of Palmstraat in the Jordaan district of the city. Employed by the Dutch East India Company, Tasman sailed from Texel to Batavia in 1633 taking the southern Brouwer Route. During this period, Tasman took part in a voyage to Seram Island, he had a narrow escape from death, when in an incautious landing several of his companions were killed by people of Seram. In August 1637, Tasman was back in Amsterdam, the following year he signed on for another ten years and took his wife with him to Batavia.

On 25 March 1638 he tried to sell his property in the Jordaan. He was second-in-command of a 1639 exploration expedition in the north Pacific under Matthijs Quast; the fleet reached Fort Zeelandia and Deshima. In August 1642, the Council of the Indies, consisting of Antonie van Diemen, Cornelis van der Lijn, Joan Maetsuycker, Justus Schouten, Salomon Sweers, Cornelis Witsen, Pieter Boreel in Batavia despatched Tasman and Franchoijs Jacobszoon Visscher on a voyage of exploration to little-charted areas east of the Cape of Good Hope, west of Staten Land and south of the Solomon Islands. One of the objectives was to obtain knowledge of "all the unknown" Provinces of Beach; this was a purported yet non-existent landmass alleged to have plentiful gold, which had appeared on European maps since the 15th century, as a result of an error in some editions of Marco Polo's works. The expedition was to use two small ships and Zeehaen. In accordance with Visscher's directions, Tasman sailed from Batavia on 14 August 1642 and arrived at Mauritius on 5 September 1642, according to the captain's journal.

The reason for this was the crew. Tasman got the assistance of the governor Adriaan van der Stel; because of the prevailing winds Mauritius was chosen as a turning point. After a four-week stay on the island both ships left on 8 October using the Roaring Forties to sail east as fast as possible. On 7 November snow and hail influenced the ship's council to alter course to a more north-eastern direction, expecting to arrive one day at the Solomon Islands. On 24 November 1642, Tasman reached and sighted the west coast of Tasmania, north of Macquarie Harbour, he named his discovery Van Diemen's Land, after Antonio van Diemen, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Proceeding south, Tasman turned north-east, he tried to work his two ships into Adventure Bay on the east coast of South Bruny Island where he was blown out to sea by a storm. This area he named Storm Bay. Two days on December 1, Tasman anchored to the north of Cape Frederick Hendrick just north of the Forestier Peninsula. On December 2, two ship's boats under the command of the Pilot, Major Visscher, rowed through the Marion Narrows into Blackman Bay, across the west to the outflow of Boomer Creek where they gathered some edible "greens".

Tasman named Frederick Hendrik Bay, which included the present North Bay, Marion Bay and the inlet Blackman Bay. The next day, an attempt was made to land in North Bay. However, because the sea was too rough, the carpenter swam through the surf and planted the Dutch flag. Tasman claimed formal possession of the land, on 3 December 1642. For two more days, he continued to follow the east coast northward to see; when the land veered to the north-west at Eddystone Point, he tried to keep in with it but his ships were hit by the Roaring Forties howling through Bass Strait. The impenetrable wind wall indicated. Tasman was on a mission to find the Southern Continent, not more islands, so he abruptly turned away to the east and continued his continent-hunting. After some exploration, Tasman had intended to proceed in a northerly direction but as the wind was unfavourable he steered east; the expedition endured an rough voyage and in one of his diary entries Tasman credited his compass, claiming it was the only thing that had kept him alive.

On 13 December 1642 they sighted land on the north-west coast of the South Island, New Zealand, becoming the first Europeans to sight New Zealand. Tasman named it Staten Landt "in honour of the States General", he wrote, "it is possible that this land joins to the Staten Landt but it is uncertain", referring to Isla de los Estados, a landmass of the same name at the southern tip of South America, encountered by the Dutch navigator Jacob Le Maire in 1616. However, in 1643 Brouwer's expedition to Valdivia found out that Staaten Landt was separated by sea from any the hypothetical Southern Land. Tasman continued: "We believe that this is the mainland coast of the unknown Southland." Tasman thought he had found the western side of the long-imagined Terra Australis that stretched

Cupressus abramsiana, the Santa Cruz cypress, is a rare North American species of trees in the cypress family. It is endemic to the Santa Cruz Mountains of Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties in west-central California; when cypresses were discovered in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1881, they were first identified as Cupressus goveniana, but Jepson considered them to be Cupressus sargentii. In a detailed analysis, Wolf concluded it was a distinct species, naming it after L. R. Abrams, Emeritus Professor of Botany at Stanford University. Subsequent authors have either followed Wolf in treating it as a species, or within Cupressus goveniana as either a variety, or not distinguished at all within C. goveniana Santa Cruz cypress is a small evergreen tree growing to 10 meters tall. The bark is gray, with a fibrous stringy texture, shredding on old trees; the foliage is bright green to yellowish-green, with scale-like leaves 1–1.5 mm long, the leaf tips spreading on vigorous shoots but not on small shoots.

Seedlings bear needle-like leaves 8–10 mm long. The cones are ovoid, 20–30 mm long and 15–22 mm broad, with eight or ten scales arranged in opposite decussate pairs, with the bract visible as no more than a small lump or short spine on the scale; the seeds are 3–5 mm long, glaucous brown, with a pair of small wings along the sides. The cones remain closed on the trees for many years. Cupressus abramsiana is in some respects intermediate between Cupressus goveniana and Cupressus sargentii in morphology, two studies have suggested that it could be a natural hybrid between the two. Cupressus abramsiana is rare in the wild, found in only five small localities in Santa Cruz County, is listed as critically endangered, it is separated from Cupressus goveniana in Monterey County by a gap of about 50 km, from the closely related Cupressus pigmaea by a gap of about 200 km. It grows at 460–1200 meters altitude, much higher than either C. goveniana or C. pigmaea

Derry is a fictional town that has served as the setting for a number of Stephen King's novels and short stories. Derry first appeared in King's 1981 short story "The Bird and the Album" and has reappeared as as his 2011 novel 11/22/63. Derry is said to be near Bangor, but King explicitly told his biograper, Tony Magistrale, that Derry is his portrayal of Bangor. A map on King's official website, places Derry in the vicinity of the town of Etna. King, a native of Durham, created a trinity of fictional Maine towns—Derry, Castle Rock and Jerusalem's Lot—as central settings in more than one work. On several occasions in It, "The Losers" find themselves at 29 Neibolt Street, a run-down, abandoned house near the trainyard. It's here where Eddie Kaspbrak first encounters It, which shows itself as a mix between a homeless leper and its familiar Pennywise form. After Eddie tells them his story and Richie go to investigate the house and are chased off by It, the creature having taken the form of a werewolf.

Soon after these incidents, the Losers Club goes back to the house in hopes of confronting It. However, soon after they confront It, the creature disappears into the sewers through a toilet pipe. They, decide to enter the sewers for their first showdown with It. During It's 1985 killing spree, the body of one of the creature's victims is found directly across the street from the house. In the 2017 adaptation and its sequel, 29 Neibolt Street acts as the primary entrance to It's lair and the scene of the Losers Club's first real confrontation with It; the house is built on the location of Derry's old well house where 91 settlers disappeared when Derry was first settled as well as a central hub for the town's sewer system. At the end of the second movie, the house collapses along with It's lair when the Losers Club kills It; the Barrens is a small tract of land still covered in trees and plant life. Derry's landfill is located here, as is several sewer pump stations; the Barrens play the most prominent role in It, as the Losers adopt them as their home away from home building an underground clubhouse there.

Most of the Losers have their first meeting here while trying to build a small dam in the Kenduskeag Stream, which runs through the Barrens, next to Derry. In It Chapter Two, after being thrown into a well, Henry Bowers is washed out of the sewer system into the Barrens by a flash flood. A section of the Kenduskeag that runs through downtown Derry; the canal comes out in Bassey Park. In January 1958, a young Ben Hanscom first encounters It walking on top of the frozen surface. A few months Eddie Corcoran is attacked here by It in the form of the Creature from the Black Lagoon; the Derry Civic Center is a recent structure built after the old civic center was destroyed in the 1985 flood. It was designed by famed architect Ben Hanscom, it plays an important role in the events of the novel Insomnia. The Crimson King, the supervillain of King's Dark Tower series, planned to use Ed Deepneau to fly into the Civic Center on a kamikaze mission, using a small plane armed with C4 explosives; the aim of this mission was not to kill the people inside the Center but to kill a child named Patrick Danville, who plays a key role in the Dark Tower story.

Following an encounter with the Crimson King himself, Ralph Roberts and Lois Chasse force Deepneau to crash the plane in the Center's parking lot. Several people are killed, but Danville is saved; the Kitchener Ironworks was an ironworks outside of Derry. In 1906, despite every machine in the works having been shut down, the Ironworks inexplicably exploded, killing a group of 88 children and 102 total people who were participating in an Easter egg hunt; the tragedy was caused by It sabotaging the equipment, presumed to be responsible for eight missing bodies. This marked the beginning of the creature's twenty-seven-year hibernation period, it is at the ruins of the Kitchener Ironworks where a young Mike Hanlon first encounters It in the form of a giant bird in 1958. In the 2017 adaptation, Ben Hanscom first encounters It in the form of a headless child, among the victims of the Kitchener Ironworks incident; the Standpipe was a large water tower in Derry similar to the Thomas Hill Standpipe. In its earlier days, it remained unlocked so that patrons of an adjoining park could climb a spiral staircase around the tank to look out over Derry from the top.

The Standpipe was closed to the public after several children drowned in the tank, most the fault of It. The Standpipe is. After the grown-up Losers Club kills It in the second Ritual Of Chüd in 1985, a huge storm ensues, destroying many buildings and landmarks in Derry, including the Standpipe. In Dreamcatcher, Mr. Gray drives to Derry to find the Standpipe, only to discover a memorial featuring a cast-bronze statue of two children and a plaque underneath, dedicated to the victims of the 1985 flood and of It; the plaque has been vandalized with graffiti reading, "PENNYWISE LIVES." In 11/22/63, Jake Epping buys a pillow with a picture of the standpipe on it. He hides a gun in it, the gun. According to It, the Tracker Brothers were two men who owned a trucking depot on Kansas Street during Its 1958 killing spree; the brothers maintained a baseball field behind the depot for children to play on. In Dreamcatcher, The Beav and Pete first meet Duddits in the depot's parking lot in 1978, saving him from a gang of bullies.

In 1985, while visiting the abandoned depot, Eddie Kaspbrak encounters Pennywise for