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Three Rivers Region

Started by dedgren, December 20, 2006, 07:57:49 PM

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bat

Welcome to page 47!

great maps! Looking forward to some new pictures...

(my 40th post in this md!)

btw MY 1200th post!!!!

Giligone

 :D A 6 foot pike!? Sounds more like a sturgeon to me... haha. I certainly wouldn't want to go swimming there... might become fishfood!  :-[  Good work once again.  ;D

Kokopelli

If you want my two and a half cents, make a separate Three Rivers Region section which would include your continuing 3RR MD and all the individual developers with separate MDs. I am interested to watching the different developers build thier sections rather than waiting for a final product plopped into the region. Just a thought.

SgtJoeDes

Hello David

Wow, quite the progress. I've been out for quite some time so I hade to spend a couple of days reading all your awesome updates. As usual, you rock. If you still read the comments on the STEX, disregard my question. I found my answer. Looking forward for new updates.

Take care.
$%Grinno$%
SgtJoeDes

pvarcoe

Loved the shot of the sign.
Boating, swimming and fishing.
What more could you want.

These little touches are great!

thundercrack83

Well, I had a host of Princess Bride comments to make, but I'll spare you...

Glad to see that 3RR is back and running better than ever after the reorganization!

Big Slark Lake looks fantastic, too! Congratulations to Big Slark! I hope someone is able to get a snapshot of that 6 foot pike in there!

And also, congratulations are in order to you, David, for 900+ posts, and we're well on our way to the big 1,000! I can't wait to see what will be in order for that, not to mention all the people vying for the coveted spot...


BigSlark

I'm honored to be a part of 3RR's amazing geographic features. Keep up the good work David and I'm looking forward to more, as always.

And I'm very glad to know that I'm bigger than the giant pike in Big Slark Lake!

Cheers,
Kevin

dedgren

Here's a population table for 3RR based on the 2000 census.

* * *


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
NamePopulation Locality Type
  
Amherst1005city
Ash Creek83place
Aurora11204city
Avon561town
Baudette14920city
Black Earth7349cty
Boissevain5435city
Brooks Ferry12438city
Carson Bluff11302city
Cook346city
Des Plaines14670city
Dodge Center383village
Duck Bay1008town
East Pineshore14861city
Ellisport2050city
Ellsworth2134town
Falls City16299city
Fox Rapids185village
Geneva8370town
Grand Valley13833city
Grass Prairie1294town
Hanska97village
Harwill8553village
Haypoint11831city
Highland12206city
Hope294village
Independence12980city
Iona310town
Kerrick219place
Lakeview212village
Le Sueur115village
Long Beach6438town
Marchand5886city
Loon Lake1346town
Marius Corners3950town
Meachem379village
Meriden3475city
Montgomery6741city
New Sweden444village
Oak Center458town
Oak Point1182city
Ottawa3954city
Oxbow713place
Pineshore125968city
Portis2658village
Prater Springs240town
Pvarcoe10000*city
Richwood16291city
Riverview689town
Rushford1009town
Shaw8205city
South Shore11777city
Spring Grove1406village
Stewart11832city
Stockholm904town
Thunder Bay375place
Travis500village
Truman7763city
Truro138place
Waldorf667city
Walnut Grove759village
Warren8746city
Weaver242village
Wheaton338village
White Rock834village
Whitehall5101town
Willoughby5481city
Wolf Lake16498city
Wood Ridge2247city
Woodstock2242town
  
Outside the above9457 
  
Total population of region473880 
  
* 2006 est.   


* * *

More tables to come.


David
D. Edgren

Please call me David...

Three Rivers Region- A collaborative development of the SC4 community
The 3RR Quick Finder [linkie]


I aten't dead.  —  R.I.P. Granny Weatherwax

Skype: davidredgren

tkirch

David,

I had to ask this do the Ingalls live in Walnut Grove still?

Pat


Hey David,
   
Quote from: Shadow Assassin on April 03, 2007, 02:26:24 AM
Is the Head Park Ranger of Big Slark Lake named Kevin, by any chance? :P

Shadow had a good question there and so is the head ranger Kevin lol.
So i had to find a good looking pic as it should show Kevin in his position.




BTW David that pop table is intense,  If one might have thought that you worked for the
census bureau instead of being a lawyer. take care my friend, hope all is well up north - pat
 


Don't forget the SC4D Podcast is back and live on Saturdays @ 12 noon CST!! -- The Podcast soon to Return Here Linkie

BigSlark

Quote from: patfirefghtr on April 03, 2007, 07:03:04 PM

Shadow had a good question there and so is the head ranger Kevin lol.
So i had to find a good looking pic as it should show Kevin in his position.



All its missing is my giant red beard, nicely done!

Tarkus

Been awhile since I stopped by.  That population chart is very impressive, David--being a bit of statistics nut I thoroughly enjoyed it, as well as the railroad backstory and map (also a huge map enthusiast).  And congrats Kevin on Big Slark Lake--it's good to see a fellow transit geek get on the map. :thumbsup:

And David, I hope your wife and son are doing better as well.  My dad had his gallbladder taken out a few years back as well.

-Alex (Tarkus)

emilin

And now I finally found 3RR too. Good thing that I did, I was beginning to worry. ;D

BlackwaterEmil's inn
Berethor ♦ beskhu3epnm ♦ blade2k5 ♦ dmscopio ♦ dedgren
♦ Emilin ♦ Ennedi ♦ Heblem ♦ jplumbley ♦ moganite ♦ M4346 ♦
papab2000 ♦ Shadow Assassin ♦ Tarkus ♦ wouanagaine

Heinz

hmm went through quite a few MDs before i found this one. phew. im glad i did. congrats to BigSlark for being part of the geography of 3rr!!! beautiful rl shot, david. and the census is intriguing. if we do get to bring those numbers to life... its going to be another milestone. so here's to that. CHEERS!


dedgren

#934
n.b.:  A newly completed portion of the ever-growing back story.  New text is again in blue.

Sovereignty and Governance

Three Rivers Region is self-governing under the Treaty of 1839 with Canada and the United States.  The region enjoys close relations with both countries, but strictly observes its national motto:


Vos mens vestri res quod nos mos mens nostrum res.

which loosely translates as, "You mind your business and we'll mind ours."

Diplomatic relations are maintained with most of the democratic nations of the world, but 3RR has no embassies in other countries.  It welcomes other nations, however, to maintain diplomats in the region.  3RR's foreign policy, to the extent it has one, is modeled on that of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick [linkie].  The governmental and administrative center of 3RR is the city of Pineshore.

Three Rivers Region is governed by a 110 member Assembly.  One member is elected from each of 3RR's 64 election districts, which coincide with the boundaries of the region's townships.  Each of 3RR's 33 cities except Pineshore elects an additional at-large member.  Pineshore elects 13 further members from wards that have roughly equal population to each other.  The Assembly sits at Pineshore every other year during the month of June.  It elects at the start of each term a chair and vice-chair, who then lead and represent the Assembly until the start of the next term.  While there are not political parties per se in the region, its politicians tend to fall along traditional liberal and conservative lines.  Broadly put, the Assembly has pursued relatively liberal social and domestic policies for the last 20 years, but tends to be centrist-right as to world issues and relations with other countries.  The region has no military, but posts observers with both the United States and Canadian armed forces for purposes of coordination.  The voting age in 3RR is 18 if not otherwise disqualified (commission of a felony, incarceration and incompetence are three disqualifiers), and participation rates in most elections runs about 85-90% of eligible voters.

The day-to-day governance of Three Rivers Region is in the hands of an official appointed by the Assembly Chair known as the Regional Administrator.  [to be written]

Three Rivers Region is divided into 64 named townships of equal size.  These townships have no governmental function, serving purely as entities created in connection with the orderly subdivision of the region's land area.  The concept of a "section" of land was developed under the Land Ordinance of 1785 [linkie], a law adopted by the United States to provide for the surveying, division and ultimate disposal to the general public of the vast lands of the Northwest Territory, an area consisting of the present-day states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota [linkie].



Three Rivers Region lies at the westernmost extent of these lands, and the one-square mile section was adopted there as well.

Sections are organized into "survey townships" [linkie] under the Public Land Survey System [linkie] adopted in the United States pursuant to the Land Ordinance of 1785.  These townships are formed from squares of 25 sections (five on a side) or, as is far more often the case, 36 sections (six on a side).  Here is a diagram of a notional 36 section township.



This form of township should not be confused with the "civil township" [linkie], a unit of local government subordinate to counties [linkie] in some of the United States.  Rather, it is just a consistent grouping of sections that provides for uniform numbering and for specific sections (for example, section 16 for public schools) to be dedicated for public purposes.  The sections of a given township were usually surveyed all at the same time.  The map boundaries between sections were required to be deemed "section-line easements" reserved for the future construction of public roads and other infrastructure.  Establishing these easements, usually 50 feet wide centered on the boundary, resulted in the one-mile square pattern of road development that characterizes 3RR, the U.S. midwest and plains states, and the great plains provinces of Canada, which were laid out in mile-square sections under a similar scheme, the Dominion Land Survey [linkie].

The rural areas of Three Rivers Region suitable for agriculture were laid out in this grid pattern beginning in the 1830s and consequently land development has occurred there pretty much as it did in the nearby states and provinces.  In 3RR, however, the first post-independence government, in 1842, rejected the idea of the 36 section township and instead adopted the 25 section township as more consistent with the region's small size (40 miles by 40 miles).  Thus, Three Rivers Region is divided into 64 survey townships five miles on a side, as shown here.



Each of these townships has a unique name, generally taken from a major physical feature found within it.  The townships each further contain four equal-size quadrants, called quads, two and one-half miles on a side.  This, of course, corresponds with the "large city" found in SC4.  The Three Rivers Region Geological Service ("3RRGS") bases its mapping on the quads, which are titled by taking the name of the underlying township (e.g.: "Low Light") and appending the two-letter directional abbreviation (i.e.: NW=northwest, SW=southwest, NE=northeast, and SE=southeast) corresponding to the location of the quadrant in the township.  Thus, the northeast quad in Low Light township is named "Low Light-NE."

The region, based on its size, is not divided into counties.  The sub-regional units of local government within 3RR are the city, town and village.  Every one of these units of government has its own post office and unique postal code [linkie].  Pineshore, due to its size, currently has 18 different postal codes.  Cities are incorporated units of local government established either under a city charter [linkie] or under provisions of the 3RR Codified Laws (3RR C.L.).  In order to incorporate as a city, a locality must have a certain number of inhabitants, currently 10,000.  This number was as low as 300 in the mid-1800s and rose gradually over the subsequent years, which accounts for the many cities in the region that have less than 10,000 in population today.  Cities are formed based on a majority vote of all of the eligible persons residing within the proposed city limits, which, if successful, is followed by a petition to the Assembly.  Each city is required to have an elected Mayor and a Board of Aldermen consisting of at least five elected members.  Generally, cities have a broad range of local power, to include the power to tax and budget, and each, as noted, has one or more elected members on the Assembly.  The 33 current cities of Three Rivers region are Amherst, Aurora, Baudette, Black Earth, Boissevain, Brooks Ferry, Carson Bluff, Cook, Des Plaines, East Pineshore, Ellisport, Falls City, Grand Valley, Haypoint, Highland, Independence, Marchand, Meriden, Montgomery, Oak Point, Ottawa, Pineshore, Pvarcoe, Richwood, Shaw, South Shore, Stewart, Truman, Waldorf, Warren, Willoughby, Wolf Lake, and Wood Ridge.

A location map is at the end of this section.

Towns are incorporated units of local government that are much like cities, but they do not have the power to tax.  The powers they do exercise are specified in the 3RR C.L.  Funds for town budgets are appropriated by the 3RR Assembly under a formula based a floor amount plus an increment that varies by population size.  Towns also have an elected Mayor and Board of Aldermen, the latter must be at least at least three in number.  There is no minimum size requirement for the formation of a town, and, as with cities, such is based on a majority vote of the eligible residents within the proposed town limits followed by the submission of a petition to the Assembly.  Three Rivers Region currently has 16 towns: Avon, Duck Bay, Ellsworth, Geneva, Grass Prairie, Iona, Long Beach, Loon Lake, Marius Corners, Oak Center, Prater Springs, Riverview, Rushford, Stockholm, Whitehall, and Woodstock.

Villages are unincorporated units of local government but have defined limits.  Village governments, which consist of an elected mayor and volunteer planning commission, have only the powers granted in the 3RR C.L. to regulate local land use and provide specified services, such a community water and sewer system.  Funds for village governmental operations are appropriated by the Assembly using much the same formula as for towns.  Villages are formed based on the Assembly's decision on a petition signed by 35% or more of the persons eligible to vote living within the proposed limits.  There are 16 current villages in 3RR.  They are Dodge Center, Fox Rapids, Hanska, Harwill, Hope, Lakeview, Le Sueur, Meachem, New Sweden, Portis, Spring Grove, Travis, Walnut Grove, Weaver, Wheaton, and White Rock.

The region also has recognized "unincorporated places," which are usually small rural urbanized areas that have some historical affinity among its residents.  These places usually have a post office and its own unique postal code.  There are five current unincorporated places in 3RR: Oxbow, Thunder Bay, Kerrick, Truro, and Ash Creek.

Here is a location map of 3RR's cities, towns, villages, and places.



Click here for a large-size map [linkie], which will open in a new window (843 kb).


Population and Demographics

Three Rivers Region has a population based on the year 2000 census of 463,880 inhabitants.  All but about 9,500 residents live in one of the urbanized localities noted in the previous section.



Here's the same table sorted by population.




The only urban place in Three Rivers Region of any appreciable size is the city of Pineshore, which has a total population (2000) of 125,983 inhabitants.  Pineshore is situated in the south-center of the region at the mouths of the Grand and Wind Rivers.



Pineshore contains just over 27% of the region's population.  Suburban areas surrounding the city have a combined population of about another 104,000 people, almost 22.5% of total population.



Together, Pineshore and its suburbs have 229,881 residents, just slightly less that half the population of Three Rivers Region.  Small cities, towns and villages spread across the rest of the region bring the area's total population to 463,880.  The next table breaks out this total by locality type.



The percentages of each locality type are summarized on the following chart.



Three Rivers Region, then, has a population, for all its remoteness, that is by and large urbanized, in that about 94% of it, all but 28,384 persons, live in cities and towns.  Calculated based on land area, 3RR has a population of almost exactly 290 persons per square mile/113 per square kilometer.  This is just slightly less that the U.S. state of Florida.  By comparison, Minnesota, the state bordering 3RR on the U.S. side, has a population density of about 61 persons per square mile/23 per kilometer.  Manitoba, the Canadian province to the northwest, has a population density of five persons per square mile/2 per square kilometer, Ontario, to the northeast, has about 33.3 persons per square mile/12.6 per square kilometer.  It is thus seen that the region is an island of fairly dense settlement in a sparsely inhabited surrounding area- a situation consistent with 3RR more or less being a city-state.

Of other demographic note,
the region's population growth is essentally flat, with deaths and a small outmigration roughly equalling births since the 1980s.  Life expectancy is substantially longer than the North American average at 89 years for women and 86.5 years for men.


* * *

That wraps this up.  Oh, note to self...

...don't ever let the Table of Contents fall six pages (two weeks) behind again!

Later.


David
D. Edgren

Please call me David...

Three Rivers Region- A collaborative development of the SC4 community
The 3RR Quick Finder [linkie]


I aten't dead.  —  R.I.P. Granny Weatherwax

Skype: davidredgren

kimcar

 &apls Incredibile amount of work and great details you put in your CJ. You should be a real mayor my friend. I think you are more organize that the once we have. I take my hat very low mate.  :thumbsup:

Livin in Sim

Hi, David,

I hope Heather and Tristen are doing well.

Being born in a village in Wisconsin, where our nearby 160 acre dairy farm was located in the Morris township, this all sounds nice and familiar.  It's very interesting to see the maps fill in and read the place names.  It surprised me to think of 3RR as heavily populated as Florida.  It seemed a bit woodsy to me.  I have Geneva in my region, and it will be the featured small town where the story takes place.  If Geneva will be featured in yours I can come up with something else, but it doesn't bother me if it doesn't bother you.   :)  I love coming up with names, and you've thought up tons.  The name kinda suggests the atmosphere to me.  But your Geneva could be totally different from my Geneva.

I think the new Mayor's Diary section will be workable.  There does need to be a system of organization, and no system is going to be all things to all people.  Thanks for the hard work with organizing it all.

--Liv



Travis

Hey David-

I see you have 3RR up in its new home. I never would have guessed this is where you were putting it.
Ah, and that backstory keeps getting better and better. I can't get enough of it!
Meanwhile, I'm staring at the map, trying to figure out which town I'll be developing. Any hints?  ;)

Keep up the good work, David.

Later.

thundercrack83

WOW! Huge update, David! All the tables and the backstory on the government of 3RR--you were quite busy, my friend! Very interesting stuff that you've come up with here, especially the map showing where all the towns and cities are throughout 3RR. Great job! I can't wait to see what you're going to do next!

stewart_garden

Hi David,

I have been lurking for a while with the intention of posting sometime in 3RR, but have never managed to keep up with the rate at which you update this MD.

Anyways, I just wanted to let you know that your MD is appreciated and has helped me do a load more with SC than I thought was possible.  I am also massively impressed with the degree of realism you bring to the game.

I'm interested in your collaborative venture, but as yet am probably not up to joining in and I am also about to move house/job/country so it isn't the best time.  I do plan to keep up to date, post occasionally and would be interested in future collaborations if you'll have me.

Keep up the good work!

Stewart
First things first, but not necessarily in that order.