Boomtown Begins (Chapter 1)

## Chapter 1: Boomtown Begins

Our story begins with our intrepid explorer Nickolas Boom discovering Gold in them thar hills and founding a small township and port that would in years to come be named after him and known to all the world as Boomtown, site of the now legendary Boomtown Fair. But when it began it was simply an annual gathering of this small community to celebrate the good fortunes of another year, Mr Boom would lay on a fabulous spread and there would be music and dancing long into the night.

It was here in Chapter One of our tale that the circus first came to town, rumbling down the hillside at dusk one late summer's evening came an enormous caravan train, at its head a swarthy moustachioed man sat a top an enormous elephant, The Gypsy King! The locals were afraid of this strange and awesome site until Boom himself went out to meet the strangers.

This was the beginning of The Fair proper, as shortly there after the caravan train was unloaded and a veritable citadel of twinkling medways and rippling canvas unfurled to create a bizarre other world full of exotic creatures and beings, the likes of which had never been seen before!

And so each year would they return with wonders and spectacles more bedazzling and beautiful than before and the annual gathering that is now known across the world as Boomtown Fair was born!

## Founding of the Town

WARNING: **THE FOLLOWING MAY NO LONGER BE CONSIDERED CANON IN THE STORY...**

Let me take you back to the beginning. Let me take you back to the origins of Boomtown, which began its life as a cluster of rocky hills in the outback of England’s West Country. Then one day a couple of hundred years ago, a prospecting geologist called Nicholas Boom was studying these hills and stumbled across a gold-bearing quartz vein threading its way though the rocky hills. If it could be said Boomtown had a father, Nicholas would’ve been it, and although he was the first person to pan for gold there his dream definitely didn’t pan out the way he envisioned.

At first Nicholas kept the discovery to himself, sifting bits of gold and selling it in the sparse towns of the area. But before long he realised help would be needed if he was going to make some real money. Thus he recruited a crew of miners, built lodgings for them and himself in the rocky hills, and set up trade links with gold merchants across the South West. The activity didn’t go unnoticed and soon hoards of hungry prospectors began to converge around the gold laden hills. It didn’t take long before blood was being shed and a perpetual power struggle ensued for dominance over the gold vein.

Nicholas expanded the settlements and created a town which he named in part after himself, and in part after the sudden explosion of wealth his town enjoyed. He tried to bring order to the community of miners and merchants, but before long lawless rebels turned that order into chaos. Everyone wanted to be in control of the river of gold that flowed from Boomtown's mines and most were willing to do whatever it took to achieve these ends.

## The First Years

WARNING: **THE FOLLOWING MAY NO LONGER BE CONSIDERED CANON IN THE STORY...**

In the coming years a small measure of order was restored to the streets of Boomtown as town officials succeeded in washing away the sins that had depraved their town for so long. Most of the rebels were driven out, the town cleaned up; and an annual town fair was set up in the hopes that it would unite and solidify the community. Grim reminders of Boomtown's dark history still lurked around every street corner but things were definitely looking up.

Travelling musicians and wandering minstrels caught news of the fair and came from far and wide, bringing joyful music into the streets. As well as farmers from neighbouring villages and towns selling their produce came peddlers of exotic food and fine clothes from across the seas. The townsfolk had never experienced such an array of colour and sound tantalising every sense. Still more folk flooded in from the four corners of the country as they heard news of the merry gathering. The resident’s hearts and minds were lifted as they danced the night away – little did they know of the impending calamity about to unfold.

The very week following the fair the unthinkable happened – the gold ran out. Old Fred Anderson swung his pickaxe for the very last time. His eyes only glimpsed the last remaining gold nugget before his fellow miners murdered him for that last grain of wealth. Panic and violence set in once more and the streets descended into anarchy. The golden days of Boomtown were seemingly over.

## Navigation

* Return: The Official Story
* Next Chapter

## References

1. ↑ https://www.boomtownfair.co.uk/the-story/chapter-1-boomtown-begins/
2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120617063348/http://www.boomtownfair.co.uk/page/prologue
3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120617063348/http://www.boomtownfair.co.uk/page/chapter-one