"Looking At The Local Old West." Topic

While looking into my local Old West history I found a few cool pictures that I thought I'd share.

These pictures may be toward the end of the history of the town but they show a local silver mining town called Monte Cristo in Washington State. You can hike up there from camping sites in the Mount Baker National Forest outside of Granite Falls.

Looking northwest down the tracks toward Barlow Pass
picture

Looking down and northwest on Monte Cristo
picture

Southwestern view towards William's Peak, showing the main line into town.
picture

Monte Cristo, 1894
picture

Living on the edge
link

The view from the hike to Monte Christo these days
picture

-Eli

This is similar to mining operations in Idaho. Town is built right into the side of a mountain. A very steep incline going up or down off the main road.

I am thinking it's about time that somebody does n Old West gaming town that is set in the Pacific Northest.

-Eli

Uhhhh

That would be Seattle with it's skid row!

Seamstresses (Prostitution) accounting for a major part of the city tax revenue; Shang Hai [sp] operations; Alaska Gold boom stuff; China Town;

And it's all urban.

What could be more unique and more PNW!

Hey now. It's more than Seattle over here :)

I'm thinking a bit more inland than Seattle, though Seattle can always be that big city nearby.

We've got logging, mining, some cattle, agriculture and fishing around here. Lots of possibilities for angry neighbors and industries butting heads.

-Eli

Wow, gorgeous views. Looks like it was a rough town, though.

Are mining towns any other way?

You still run into bear and mountain lion there these days, hate to think what it was like then.

BTW, that darned hike nearly killed me .

Chubby gamers should not do an 8 mile mountain hike in the middle of August with only a single bottle of water, improper shoes, and no snacks.

Bridge had been washed out so had to use a log which got slippery in the rain on the way back so we had to cross wade across the river which was fortunately low that year.

-Eli

Naw,

The inland stuff was pretty tame in Washington. Really nothing notable within 200 miles of Spokane. Logging, Farming, service industries in the towns. Rail road. That's about it.

On the coast, you could have smugglers (pirates!!!), gangs, and the underground (can you have D&D in an old west setting?).

What could be better than that?

mjc

Quiet you! You'll throw off my focus!

I'll likely go with my own made up town based around some of the industry that was going on. Maybe miners vs timer men or miners vs farmers, etc.

-Eli

Quite majestic!

Agreed!

-Eli

Some of the pictures I have seen in Arizona mining town museums show lots of tents and shacks on the edge of town.

Here in the northwest, wood would have been plentiful so just about anyone could make a simple shack. Tents in our rainy climate would be miserable and and incredibly cold.

Judging by what's left in the woods around Monte Cristo and due to the nature of the terrain I'm going to venture a guess that a lot of the workers tucked themselves away in the hills wherever they could find some spare flat ground.

-Eli

emu,

Cool. I've toyed with setting my wild west town in California but really have to go with a fictional territory – either Joedaho or Joetana (after a friend) – because I of what I'll include, but most especially the northern Plains tribes but I'm also going to have Apaches (thus the fictional territory). What I like most about the photos is the steep terrain, I've been toying around with how to do that effectively on the table and still have a playable situation. Also, this is a SMALL town but look how many structures there are in the pictures. I'm working, oh so slowly, on a damned big town. Thanks for posting.

Cali has a lot of nice mountains too. One of benefits of our lovely western mountain ranges, not the bumps they have back east.

The local terrain is what drew me to consider it as well. Making such terrain usable isn't as hard as it seems. I've spent a life time camping in and hiking around that stuff and there are plenty of places you could fudge levels of flat ground. Use the tops of boulders, ledges, small switchbacks, fallen logs, stumps, etc to create steps and flat areas. Another tricks is in using trees that have grown at an angle from the slopes. Dead falls and other debris tend to gather on their roots, creating platforms.

As for small towns, at it's boom time Monte Cristo was home to 1000 people.

-Eli

Hey, Emu, I have – awaiting paint – 720 civilians for my town and environs and that doesn't count the 216 characters (in groups of 12 x 18, mounted, a foot, and dead) or the U.S. Army – which has a one-for-one mounted to dismounted. And none of that counts the Native Americans which is a bloody lot of figures (360 mounted warriors) plus warriors on foot and villagers. All this in 15 mm and based three figures to a base. I have five wagons in each of my two trains – one horse drawn, one ox drawn (may add one more of each), not counting chuck wagons, stagecoaches, freight wagons, army supply wagons (and a couple destroyed wagons – anyone make a "destroyed" stagecoach?). Guess I could properly populate, more or less, Monte Cristo!
: )

Yeah, I guess you could say I like the old west.

Those old railroad photos are great.

sky

Looks pretty good. Down here there is more brush. At low altitudes our forests are mostly chapparal.
Weaselhoffen.

Early Morning Writer – That's a dang big town you got there! I am glad you said they were in 15mm. That's stil la heck of a lot of lead, but it would me a monster in 28mm.

-Eli