Rock Creek, Wyoming (an Old West game)
Rock Creek, Wyoming Territory, was established in 1867. It flourished for 32 years until 1899 when it was virtually abandoned. The entire town's acreage and buildings are now a privately owned ghost town.
The Overland Trail Stagecoach Company established a station near the site which would become Rock Creek in 1860. The town grew up around and because of the station. At its height, the town boasted five saloons, two hotels, a post office, stagecoach station, two mercantiles, a Union Pacific railroad depot, stockyards and a school but no churches. The thing that brought about the height of the town's success also brought about its death...the railroad. With the coming of the railroad, the stagecoaches eventually went out of business. They were the lifeline for many people who began to trickle out of the town. The more self-sufficient the railroad became, the less it needed the town and the town suffered and faded away.
Industry in the town began with a few hunters and a trading post-type place and eventually saw coal mines, pits of a clay-like deposit called bentonite (used in cosmetics), factories which made rails and parts for railroad cars and engines, stockyards which could ship 100 cars of cattle in one day and timber mills, among other everyday industries.
Problems with Native American tribes who resented the encroachment and theft of their hunting grounds and territories by the white settlers began immediately and continued into the 1880s. There were times of peace, such as nearly all of the 1850s, after peace treaties were signed. But always the treaties would be broken by white settlers who believed they had the right to take what they wanted even though it wasn't theirs. And they put people behind bars for that now. Ironic. The major tribes that occupied what would become Wyoming were the Shoshone, Arapahoe and Crow.
Our game will begin in 1868. The stagecoach will be in the full glory days of its passenger and freight business. The town is a nice size but hasn't boomed yet. This is where our game will differ a bit from actual history. In this game, the stage will not close. The railroad can't go everywhere, right? And the town will continue on, unfazed.
Come join us in Rock Creek and experience the Old West!