Ironwood

**Ironwood** was a settler town situated in the distant north of the Dakota Territories, on the beautiful boreal reaches of the Great Plains. Founded in 1881 near the Canadian, Dakotan and Montanan borders, it was a town that exported fur to Canada and timber to America.

## Geography

Ironwood was on the colder end of being temperate, and was hilly, in the Great Plains biome. It was in the shadow of a large mountain to the southwest (Mt St Katherine) and a small mountain range to the north (the Border Hills). From the Border Hills came the east-to-west-flowing Tatanka River. A bridge to its east (Bly's Bridge) and a ford to its west (Red's Ford) allowed townsfolk to cross the river. The town was situated on the north bank of the river, on gentle hills. The hills were heavily forested to the north and west - the Thousand Acre Woods. Downhill from the town was Lake St. Clair, a large body of freshwater.

## Isolated Location

Ironwood was nestled 12 miles south of the Canadian-American border, and 8 miles east of the Montana-Dakota border. It was situated in the shadow of Mount Saint Katherine (*Wapȟáhamaȟpíya* in Lakota), on some hills that rose above the cold, lake-dotted plains near the Thousand Acre Woods.

There were very, very few nearby colonial settlements, making Ironwood the largest for hundreds of miles around. Moving north into Canada, there was seldom a homestead or two in the Northwest Territories, only numerous Cree hamlets. The land was wild and harsh. The trading fort of Winnipeg was 300 miles east by northeast, through Manitoba.

South and east across the vast expanse of the Great Plains, there were very few homesteads. The nearest city was Bismarck, and the nearest large town was Mandan - both about 200 miles southeast. Lead-Deadwood was over 300 miles due south.

West across the Montana border only revealed impenetrable mountains at the fringe of the Snowies and Rockies.

In short, Ironwood was in the *middle of nowhere.*

## Nearby Native Presence

To the south could be found the three tribe alliance of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara. To the southeast and east were the Lakota, especially the Teton/Hunkpapa. To the northeast were the Ojibwe, and to the north across the 49th parallel were large groups of Plains Cree peoples.

## History

Ironwood was founded in late 1881 as a small homestead on the far north reaches of the Great Plains. Its founding members included Benjamin and Lucía Arrazola-Carter, innkeepers from the failed oil boomtown of Dusquesne AZ, as well as Donovan Beck and Jodie Bilford, outlaws from Albuquerque NM. It attracted people over the ensuing years for its calm, beautiful location and relative seclusion. By 1886, the town's population was around 3,000 - the largest for a hundred miles in any direction.

## Fur and Timber Industries

The town made its main industry off of timber and furs, due to the nearby pine and fir woods. This led to the town's two main companies - **Ironwood Timber Co**, and **Garments & Varmints** (G&V) Also, they acquired animal goods and ample furs from the plains and woods, and minorly some aquatic goods and fish from the Tatanka River. There were two main routes taken by the town's goods wagons, mainly dependent on whether they were selling furs or timber.

#### The Lumber Route: Ironwood to Bismarck

Trading caravans of the town's timber would have to brave the *long* journey to Bismarck. They would travel 60 miles east to White Earth, change horses, 70 miles east-by-southeast to Minot, 60 miles south to Washburn, then finally follow the Missouri River's banks a final 40 miles south to Bismarck.

If they packed ample food to cut down on hunting time, and focused on the journey, a wagon train with fresh horses could cover twenty miles a day, making it three days to White Earth, another four to Minot, three more to Washburn, and two to Bismarck - accounting for overnight stays, that could be only a **fortnight** of travel to bring lumber to Bismarck City!

#### The Fur Route: Ironwood to Canada

Originally, a grueling and lonely wagon journey could be made a hundred and fifty miles northeast to Virden, Manitoba - without waystations or fresh horses, this could mean ten to fifteen days across the cold plains, followed by another 170 miles east to Winnipeg. **However**, with the advent of the **Canadian Pacific Railroad** in the 1870s and 1880s, Ironwood traders could simply travel to White Earth then to Minot and go from there. The CPR, built from 1881-6 (Ironwood's early years!) stretched from Halifax to Montréal to Winnipeg to Calgary to Edmonton to Vancouver.

## Notable Residents

* Logan McKenzie, a burly Scottish priest who had a rockly relationship with his faith
* Miles Dwyer, a senior hunter fond of tall tales
* Dr. Victor Krieger, a doctor from Munich who studied in Switzerland
* Lucía and Benjamin Arrazola-Carter, a pair of ex-outlaws who owned the Hundred House Inn
* Jon and Mara Bergen, an old rosy pot-bellied couple from Westphalia who helped at the inn.
* Margaret Annesfield, a shy church sweep. Her boyfriend was Janis Kowalewski. Lawrence pressured her into letting him into the church for theft.
* Lawrence Miller, a baker who liked French culture. He was part of the cult of Baphomet and a fanatic who murdered Deputy Jodie.
* Deputy Jodie Bilford, a ex-gang member and ex-outlaw who became deputy and acting sheriff. She was crucified by Lawrence.
* Jehovah and Tyler Merchant, an old blind man and his boxer son who lived in the woods. Tyler was stabbed to death by Caterina.
* Natasha Linden, an elderly Norwegian woman with rheumatism who kept goats on the outskirts. Her son left to Ontario. Her goats were killed by Baphomet cultists.
* Jake Courser, the teenage paperboy who kept bumping into people or falling over.
* Dennis Leschampes, the French dentist and barber, from Aix-en-Provence.
* Cobb Thursday, the lanky silver-fox owner of the post office. He was filled with regret having cheated on his wife Lynn four years ago, leading her to take her own life.
* Caterina Thursday, daughter of Cobb Thursday. Icy pale with raven hair and blue eyes. Shy, but feignedly so. Leader of the Baphomet cult.
* Pawel Kowalewski. A Silesian blacksmith from Wrocław. An avid hunter and an all around lad. He lived with his wife Oliwia and their son:
* Janis Kowalewski. The brutish muscle of the Baphomet cult. A hard-headed blonde blacksmith's kid, and the boyfriend of Margaret.
* Florence Lyons. A 6'2" amazonesque professor and gunslinger. A stranger to town.