The Winding River Project

[lak47]

Fantastic catching up on things. Great update, and the marina and Darkforest area sound very interesting. Looking forward to it

[mrbisonm]

Thank You all for the nice encouragements and I am glad that you liked it although it is quite long.
Glad you liked it too Will12, and Billy it might become later in the story....

Also thanks cyclone1001 and glad you liked the Gibson Air. I guess it has to start somewhere, right?

Oh, I forgot one picture in this update. It was supposed to be a late news report at the end of the update. So here it is........
" The principle Writer of the Access Tribune, Charles M Johnson, was on his way to meet the Ganoga Boys in Brokentree for the first interview of the adventurers, when he suddenly slammed into a pick-up's rear end at a very high speed, which left him under the vehicule for more than 20 minutes. With the help of people driving by, he came out intact without any harm though.
The ambulance took less than 10 minutes to get to the scene after being alarmed by a driver that drove to the nearest phone at Troy's Canteen half a mile uproad. Gregory Badger, an Ambulance helper from the Sterling Island, made sure that Johnson was ok before being released.
The 79 year old man in the Pick-up wasn't sure what exactly happened and told the press that he thought he missed the turn and must have hit a raccon. He  lost his cigar but was ok and mostly surprised when he saw the cream coulored convertable under his axel, asking how long that he was following him like this.
Some people further away partially blocked the road to make sure that no one with high speed would enter the accident scene.
Something that everyone present realized is that the Police from Access took more than a hour to get here. What if it was a crime, they asked themselves.
I suppose after this there will be a need for a regional Police that has different offices in different parts of the region. People said that they were all going to report this unacceptable delay of the Access police, who is for the moment the only "Law" available in the region to the Governor.
Johnson asked the Towing later to drive him to the meeting point of the Ganoga Boys."



Have fun and thanks....

Fred

[Terring7]

Very detailed and interesting tour

[Lior]

NIce history, you're  very creative!!

[Ricky112233]

Awesome few updates, I swear, you have THE best MD of all MDs here at SC4D

Not quite sure if I posted here before...but that's not important..What is important is that you have A great MD and I hope you will continue this MD for a while or so..

Could you please PM me about the rules for having a character in your MD?

ThankYou!

-Ricky

[Gringamuyloca]

  Well Fred.. I still have at least a page and and 1/5  to peruse... and 'soak in' !
I'm loving the story line... (beware the "obituaries") 
Taking the time your 'craft' deserves!

Wishing you best of health! 

[cowcorn]

Well this has taken quite a shape since I last checked in. I am no certain I'll have the patience to catch up to the story like I did with NoG but I will definitely look through the pages to see how you developed this.

[mrbisonm]

Sorry folks, I left a couple weeks ago without leaving a message, but my wife Lynn (known as Lynncanox here) all of sudden decided to go on vacation in New Zealand again (it's early spring there), and we left so quickly that I even forgot my laptop....geeeez.
Now I had to go with her to do the shopping, taking walks in the evening and stay longer in restaurants, instead having some free time on my laptop. 

Anyways, we got back last sunday night. Now I 'm a little busy getting all the things straight that others have messed around with while I was gone.

Thanks Terring7,gringamuyloca and Lior, glad you find the story interesting and entertaining.

Ricky112233, I will send you a PM soon.

cowcorn, glad to see you again, I was starting to wonder where you disappeared to. Did you know that wellington bought some land in Grassland? A whole farm? I wonder what he has in mind with this.

There will be an update to the story before the next weekend ends. We will take another visit around Simland and this time have a "serious look" at the Snake River Region, south of Bluebay. We also meet the Ganoga Boys again, they finally got out of the wilderness after 16 days and were largely welcomed by many folks of the region.
See you then, and hey....thanks for the comments.

Fred

[Gringamuyloca]

  Glad to learn you are taking time to take time Fred... Good on Lynn to move fast enough for you to leave your laptop at home...    you'd better keep an eye out for a cape behind her back - sounds like she's got 'super human' skills.     

Looking forward to where you will lead us.

Cheers!

[FrankU]

Now I had to go with her to do the shopping, taking walks in the evening and stay longer in restaurants, instead having some free time on my laptop.

Sounds like a pleasant change to me!
Did you have a good vacation? For most of us this time of year appears to be quite busy, because like the years before the months of october and november seem very quiet on this site.

Greets, Frank

[mrbisonm]

Did you have a good vacation?

I guess I did, Frank....lol. After all, I was in my most preferred country.
This place is so far from home that I don't even think of Canada anymore when I'm there, probably the reason why I relax so much in NZ.

I am back with writing an update for this MD, and also finishing the renders of my farmproppack (MFP1)

Fred

[frostwolf]

New Zealand? You are one lucky man, Fred. Have fun.

And glad to see Badger finally getting some notice.

[mrbisonm]

Well, this is the eightieth update of the Winding River River Project already. Thanks to all who have commented to this story.



Update 80

Snake River             


Saturday, June 17th, 1967
                           Today on this date ... then:

- 1579 – Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England.
- 1885 – The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.
- 1944 – Iceland declares independence from Denmark and becomes a republic.
- Born: 1239 – King Edward I of England (Edward Longshanks) (d. 1307)
- Died: 1463 – Princess Catherine of Portugal (b. 1436)


Today we will visit another of my regions that I have in the Winding River folder. Sofar we haven't seen, nor talked about it much. It is the Snake River Region.

This is one of my first regions that I ever "hand" terraformed, probably 7 or 8 years ago. Originally I was going to make the NoG (Nexis of Genesis) CJ on ST with this region, but at the same time I worked on a larger map and chose the last one for the long lasting CJ of NoG. This region however I have played on for ages, not as it is now, but I used to have a city on these 15 (5x3) medium tiles with a population of a little over 1 Million citizens. Unfortunetly the map with the city disappeared in 2009 with the "big Crash" of my computer, while the virgin map was luckily burned on a cd. Today, everything is burnt on a Cd or DVD and I have more than 60 discs of SC4 stuff on my computershelf.

Back to the story.....

Snake River is the most southern region of Simland, touching the borders of the southern neighbor. It is a smaller region, covering only the lower river valley itself. Mostly existant because of its rich agricultural soils, Snake River has a total of 32,866 population at the end of 1967.
The source of the Snake River is the big Sunday Lake, east of the region, and which covers about 20 percent of the large flatlands of the southern plains. The river ends its journey only after 65 km's (about 41 miles) into the Mole Bay from where you can barely see the Nardicians Islands out east in the Revera Sea when you're on top of the last rock on the Peninsula.
North of Snake River lies Bluebay, which is directly connected with Snake River by the old Highway 15, the part that was built 3 decennies ago, and two other small country roads. Also a simple road heads toward the Capitol city (Lakestead) north-west. Route 177 west starts in the town of Snake River, leading through the Milby region into the Lakestead region and ends in Pullman, a small town in the mountains near the City of Lakestead. All that can be seen with more details on the Simland Map here:

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/2665/largesimlandmap.png

The region of Snake River has only two small municipalities, Snake River on the coastal area and Deerpond inland some miles upriver, which is only a big village of about 4000 citizens.
Snake River was founded in 1604, which means that it is the oldest town of Simland. Here the first settlers arrived and settled inside the protective rivermouth. The land is rich in its soil, therefore producing excellent agricultural harvests. Besides the Lakestead region, it is the second best place to grow crops in Simland. Some even say that Deerpond is the capitol of agriculture, strange if you consider the size of the village. There is also some seafishing activity in Snake River, receiving the harvests of the Nardician Island's fishing industries and lately some tourists come and see the ruins that are still visible of the first settlers.
A ferry can be taken from here (and from Bluebay) to the Islands of Nardicia, one of the two places that offer such a service and connection with the outer islands besides by air.

80.01


80.02


First let's go to the small village of Deerpond, formerly Deerpass, founded only a few years after Snake River. Some settlers moved upriver in the early years to find new agricultural plains to settle down. Deerpass was populated in 1624 and quickly became the farming capitol of the new Simland Nation. In 1894, the whole village burnt down when attacked by the last raid of the Simland aborigins. It took a few years to rebuild it and it was refounded as Deerpond in 1909.
As we can see on the picture below, Deerpond is small, having a population barely over 4,000 today. The village was named after the big quantity of deer coming to the little pond to feed and water. The pond is directly connected with the Snake River. Surrounding the small town are the farms that have been here eversince the settlers cut down the forests and drained the prairies.

80.03


*Downtown* Deerpond is marked with the tall municipal Hall that was built in 1909 when it was founded, again. The Townhall is surrounded by some offices which are generally connected with the agriculture of the region, such as farm insurance Companies, Agronome's offices and some federal offices such as the ministry of agriculture. Mainstreet is fairly quiet during all hours at days or nights. Not much going on's for the younger population around here. They have to go further east to the coast to find entertainments adapt to their ages.

80.04


The only place where someone could get some entertainment around here is to visit the farmer's fair which is open to the public twice a year. It offers fresh harvested crops and agricultural products for sale and to sample, plus a small variety of musical band shows in the evenings of weekends, which are more and more common in Simland these days. There is also a small fleamarket type event held once a month on this terrain, offering everything from fleas to wheelbarrows.

80.05


Surprizingly Deerpond has a small trainstation that offers a ride to Bluebay and back 4 times a day. The station was built just before the war to deliver soldiers to and from Deerpond and surroundings. A small percentage of the Deerpond citizens today travel to Bluebay to work. It takes them 45 minutes by train and 1 hour by car to get there. Bluebay offers a lot more variety on jobs than Deerpond, which is limited with certain trades only.

80.06


Probably called the capitol of agriculture because of the grain shipping station just out of town, Deerpond is really the center of agricultural interest. Trucks from all directions come here to empty their loads of either grains or vegetables and have it shipped to the Maincity of Lakestead where it is converted and offered to the population. The station offers more than 500 steady jobs to the population, the main job offering organization in the area.
Deerpond is where the Mayor of Access Center, Steven Bartlett was born. The Bartlett's still own several farms in the area, cultivating corn and barley. The family has been around for several centuries.
There aren't any schools in Deerpond, nor Police, all that is available in the coastal town.

80.07


Now let's move a little closer to the coastal areas of the region, where we come across of the Snake River National Park, the first park ever founded by the Nation in the early 19th century (1822). It is thanks to its ninth president who spent his freetime here to fish salmons and hunt deer, goats and moose that this national refuge was founded. Enlarged in 1888 by a governor, the area now holds a good part of the Snake River region on both sides of the river. Acces to the park is still limited to some, but today's governor of the region promissed the population lately that his plans include a better access and presentation of the National Park in the near future. Belonging to the part also is the famous French Point, a big protuding rock on the river's side, where the Simlish army was surprized and defeated in a confrontation with the French during the 1785/87 war.

80.08


80.09


It is time now to go to the coast, where we visit the maintown of the region, Snake River itself. As said before, the town was founded in 1604 by the first conquerors of Simland. The land around this area as we know of as Simland, was several times lost to the English and then to the French, but never was the castle of Snake River taken by enemy forces and in the late 19th century finally all three came to an agreement to settle down their borders in the south, north and west. Simland was born as we know it today.
Before we go into the town itself, here is the area of the Mole County, where it all started and where the first Simsettlers landed in 1604. Only a small monument and an engraved brass plaque marks the spot today near the ferry to the Turtle's island. The administration of the area goes to the town itself because no actual village is found here, except some residentials here and there on the mainland and on Turtle's Island. A small ferry line connects with the mainland. These islands are well known to boaters and shipcaptains, because many have either sunken or stranded here sometime in their passage through the islands. Full of sharpedged rocks and gravely like banks, boating is very difficult and only recommended for those with experience or local fishermen. Because of the islands at the rivermouth of the Snake River, it is rich in wildlife and fish. Many fishermen from the town and also from the Nardician Islands come here early in the spring to take their part of the massive lobster migration that come through the area every year.

80.10


Seen from another view, this is the same area as before, showing us the small islands of the River's mouth and the marina of the peninsula.

80.11


These below are the last remains of the Mole Castle that the English and French never were able to take and which won the war between all three nations. Today the site is restricted to a few organized and guided visits to tourists which have the privilege to a closer look at the oldest ruins of Simland. (that is besides the rockskulls found in the Winding River and maybe also besides the ruins the Ganoga Boys found and will soon announce publically from the Ganoga Valley, once confirmed)
From the top of this massive cliff, we can easily see the contours of the Nardician Islands out in the sea. That was also the reason why the castle was built here, as a lookout and a protecting canon base to stop invaders from going up the river. One can access this historical site either by boat or car. A road from the town rolls over the cliffy peninsula to the castle.

80.12


This is the biggest town in the region, Snake River, which is on both sides of the river and connected by a ferry which transports cars and people every hour during daytime and every 3 hours during nightime to the other side and back. Both parts of the town hold about 25,000 citizens together. Protected from seawinds by the higher peninsula, it is quite evident why the first settlers took roots here.
Snake River is a deep river as we can see on the right side of the below picture, therefore easily accessible for ships as long as they are guided through the rivermouths rocks and isles.

80.13


Sometimes whales come into the harbourbay where freshwater and saltwater meet, probably because they have done so for thousands of years or maybe just because of curiosity. A small boatride for tourists to get closer to these mammal giants is available at that time of year. Besides for the Nardician Islands, this is the only coastal location, besides the Winding River Outlet, left in Simland where these whales can still be regularily seen these days.

80.14


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo2bVbDtiX8

The small fishing harbour of Snake River is the other jobgiving activity in the region besides agriculture. Here many students from Bluebay come every spring and fall to earn a few §§ while working for the local fishing industry. The ferry seen here is the one that brings the residents and tourists to the other side and also one line which goes to the Nardician Islands once a day.

80.15


The town's history can be seen on every streetcorner, but slowly and without caring much about the heritage, new buildings and structures are  overtaking the first founded town of Simland and its heritage. They call it : Progress.

80.16


The old downtown of Snake River is still one of the most visited places of the town, although it is also not very clean and maintained. You can even have lunch at a McDo in one of the historical buildings of the town nowadays. The wooden harbour posts that used to be here to anchor ships and unload their cargo have long gone and only a few leftovers can be found here and there alongside the straight rockshore.

80.17


Although the town is a touristical attraction in some parts of the town, other more hidden parts do not look so touristicly attractive. The slums have invaded the town in the late fourties, after the war. Unemployments because of closing manufactures and the missing connections with the rest of the nation have made this town only a place to live for the lower grades of the society. Appartments are lowcosting and living in Snake River is less expensive than elsewhere, but jobs are rare.
A modern skyscraper has started to grow and was quickly abandonned a few weeks later. Now it stands sadly among the residential blocks and no one seems to know what to do with it.

80.18


Also the bigger industries are being slowly abandonned in the industrial park, creating more jobless residents. Will Snake River completely be abandonned one day?, many ask themselves.

80.19


Everywhere you look, you either get a reminder of the oldtown's ruins, or the leftovers from some stranded boats and ships that didn't make it through the islands. Here near downtown is one of those wrecks, where the other half probably sunk down the abyss into the deep of the river's mouth. Today only a few hobby fisherman hang out here trying to hook one of those big ones between the marine ruins.

80.20


On the other side of the river, on the peninsula, things seem to look different, as if we have reached another town. Here we have tourist attractions like the first religious building of Simland, the St-Mathias Monastery built in the 1780's. Today it is open to the public with guided tours and soon it is planned to be converted into a hotel, if things in the region pick up. Here also, one can still see some smaller historical buildings, of which some have been restored to its original state.
Where today the appartment homes stand, some time ago hangars used to be part of the harbour that stored the cargo coming from Europe and then were shipped to the new blooming town of Lakestead eastward in the 19th and 20th century by horse and trucks. This harbour once was the busiest place in Simland, before the foundation of Beecherfalls and Frampton up north at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, where a new international harbour was built.

80.21


One of the places to visit in the region is the big Othmar's castle that once protected the citizens of the harbourtown. Funds were raised and restoring of the almost 275 year old castle have started only last year. It will be the major attraction to become of the town. The clocktower granted by the English in 1832 when the war finished, the small cathedral that was added in 1845 along with the castle and the monastery will one day hopefully become a major historical site to visit in Simland.
The only ships landing in the harbour today  are either privately owned yachts or this wooden water wheel powered steamboat that will take tourists around the harbour, the islands and the peninsula during the summermonths in exchange for a few tokens to pay for the restauration and conservation of the ruins of the Snake River bay.

80.22


I hope that you at least somewhat enjoyed the second part of the regions of Simland visits. The next time we come back will be with the arrival of the "Ganoga Boys" and some news around the region of the Winding Riverand its citizens. Meanwhile please suggest another region that you would like to see in another Simland Regional Visit. See the regions of Simland by visiting the general Simland map on the link on top of this post. Sofar we have seen and visited Bluebay and Snake River. Which region should I show you the next time we follow this series.


- Frampton and Beecher Falls
- Reverant
- Halo & Roy
- Chadelaine Island
- Winding River Outlet
- Capitol City of Lakestead
- Sandom
- Goose Bay
- Milby
- Nardician Islands

Other regions, such as Moe's River, Stukley, Upper Winding River, Three Islands and Rocklake have not been finished yet and will be available only later sometime.

Have a nice weekend and week, I'll be back with an update before the week ends.

Fred

Fullsized PNG pictures with more details of the region can be found here:

1967 Satelite View...

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6131/snakerivervalley1.png

1967 Transportationview...

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/3888/snakerivervalley2.png

[Ricky112233]

Great update!

Snake River is beautiful!

I would like to ask one thing though...

Where did you get that water and terrain mod?

-Ricky

[Cyclone1001]

Fantastic update, I would certainly like to see more in this area.

[Gringamuyloca]

  what a perfect way to enjoy the first cuppa of the day.

I will admit to thinking something terrible had happened to the Ganoga Boys, when I first saw pic 80.08, the eagles making me think of vultures circling...I was much happier after reading the caption.

As always, your underwater detailing catches my eye, and the pictures of Turtle's Island and environs are perfect examples of the master at work! 

I sure enjoyed the look around Snake River, and learning about the people and and the landscape they call home. (I also love looking around for all your great custom content too! 60 discs??!!! No wonder it looks so good!)

I'm looking forward to 'hooking up' with the Ganoga Boys...and wherever the path may lead us next! 

[mrbisonm]

Hey thanks for the comments.
Ricky112233, Below is what I have in my *Terrain Mod* folder. Don't ask me where I got it from because I have so much stuff (14Gb's/ +- 55,000 files) in both of my Plugins folders, that it is impossible to remember.
The watermod is almost as old as the game, if I remember right, I have it ever since.
If you want to find any files below, just ask it on the Where can I find threads. I'm sure that they can up with better info than I.



Gringamuyloca, now don't choke on your coffee yet, the Ganoga Boys are just fine...lol...I am still working on the custom lots for this event.
The 60 CD's aren't just custom lots and BATs, but also all the regions that I played on and created , MD's like NoG (Nexis of Genesis) and many tutorials that I picked up from many sites, etc.

Cyclone1001, I suppose that we come back to Snake River one day.


<< " Did you hear the big Boom last night, some kind of an explosion?", asked Mike on the way to meet the Ganoga Boys with his boss, "Some said that it came from the military Base."
"No, I didn't, but my daughter told me about this morning during breakfast," John answered, "She said that it woke her up at 3 AM".
"You know John, I am still suspicious with these things about the army, I'm sure that there's something fishy going on there, as a matter of fact I always did, and that ever since it started back when they found our two highway workers, dead beside the Porolium gas sources. I just can't help thinking sbout it every day." Mike continued.
"Mike, Mike, Mike...." John interrupted, taking a deep breath, "Please don't start that again. We all know that somehow you're a little fanatic about this, after you spied on the army a few years ago....and almost got caught, remember that?"
" Yeah, that was quite an adventure", Mike said and both started laughing and continued to talk about it, while they only had about 3 miles to go to be at the meeting point at the Ganoga Wilderness entry.>>

Fred

[Gringamuyloca]

  Master of Back Ups!
... and intrigue! 

[jmyers2043]

This is the real Snake River - or  -  - is yours the real one?     The resemblance  is uncanny 



Good history lesson nevertheless.

- Jim <aka, keeping Bob alive>      

[Will12]

Nice heritage update Fred. Hope Billy hasn't died unexpectantly because of my absence.