Whitman Bay - Forest to Metropolis

[palin1388 0]

I like the town. Reminds me why I need to download more stuff from STEX. Keep up the nice work Can't wait for the next two towns.  By the way welcome to page 2!

[cemaphon 0]

Replies

cleaner475, 2nerdy4u -  Yeah, I love that school. There are thousands of schools like this from the early 20th century in small towns and older city neighborhoods.

penguin007 - Yeah, it has a nice small-town feel to it. But it can't stay that way forever.

bbfan02 - Oh man, I have tons of low density residential downloads, mostly from here, and some from sc4devotion. The next update will show off some more of them. As edmonton_stinks says, a bunch of the houses on that block are the American Foursquare set. It's a great set with a lot of variety of styles and paint/trim, and a style that is  very common in much of the US.

edmonton_stinks - That smalltown set is great. It's so nice to be able to create a commercial downtown that isn't filled with either modern office parks or all the maxis low-wealth commercial buildings that really look like they belong on the main road on the edge of a large town/small city.

palin1388 - Sometimes I think I spend more time downloading and doing related file management than I actually spend playing the game. But there sure is a lot of great content out there.

Next update tomorrow - plenty more nice small-town pictures, and a little industrial area. Meanwhile, changes are coming to Whitman Bay!

[Cleaner475 150]

can't wait for that update, sure you'll make it awesome

Richard

[nottheboss 1]

good cj

[bbfan02 23]

Thanks for the very nice response. Looking forward to next update.

-bbfan02-

[cemaphon 0]

Whitman

Whitman occupies the south bank of the Olalla River along the railroad to Olympia. Almost all of the agricultural production in the entire region is processed here.

A huge grain elevator dominates the western edge of the town.

A short distance to the west of the town is a small industrial center.  While it currently has several different industries, it started out as a vegetable cannery.

Before modern refrigeration, most produce couldn't be shipped very far, and due to the remoteness of the Olympic Peninsula, most of the vegetables grown here needed to be canned first.

The agricultural output of the region soon outgrew the capacity of the original cannery, so a new one was built.  After the sawmill, it is the largest single employer in the region.

This facility is capable of both freezing vegetables, and storing them in refrigerated containers to be shipped fresh to supermarkets across the entire western United States.

This cement plant is located right by the river. Barges towing gravel can be unloaded right on the banks. The process would surely be more efficient with some waterfront development, but it is still much cheaper than shipping gravel by road or rail. Most of the development in the region uses cement from this plant.

Whitman's Main Street. Similar to Glanton's but not as large.

A close-up of the elegant brick storefronts along Main Street.

There is also a small commercial strip near the grain elevator.

Whitman has a great diversity of housing, for such a small town.

There are several blocks of these small ranches.

A bunch of the American Foursquare style houses.  Many of these were built all over the US in the early 20th century. They were usually built from mass-produced plans, and often sold as kits, where you could have all of the building materials shipped to the site, and then assembled over a foundation. Unfortunately, tragedy can strike even in the most bucolic locales.  Homicide is so rare here, that this house will be known as the 'murder house' for decades.

Some newer homes, pretty typical of postWW2 suburbs in the US. More swimming pools! Why?! It rains all the time here.

I know you've all probably seen these houses about a million times, but I love them. One of my favorite Maxis buildings. They're not very typical for the region though. Most of the very oldest housing stock around Puget sound is from the 1880s, by which time the Second Empire style had gone out of fashion.

[jacqulina 162]

wonderfull updates my friend very nice layout and planning,great use of trees,and wonderfull pics

[2nerdy4u 1]

I like the way you make industry. Looking good.

[palin1388 0]

Such detail into the back story almost makes you feel like you are a part of the region. Glad you take the time to share your region and story with us.

[KingTitan 6]

Looks great friend. A very intense farming community.....I like this.

[calibanX 1]

Ooh, Jbsimio's Smalltown USA series is getting a nice workout here. Very nice small towns.

[penguin007 27]

Nice town cant wait for more

Will

[bbfan02 23]

Big update! A lot of great looking pictures around town! Excellent job!

-bbfan02-

[cemaphon 0]

Replies

jacqulina - Yeah, those are some nice trees. Cycledoggs and Jeronjis I think.

2nerdy4u - Thanks. Industry is woefully underrepresented in CJs, and I love old funky factories and other industrial buildings, both in game and real life. Here in Seattle we have a public park built on the site of an old gasification plant:

It's a fascinating building to walk around and look at. I wouldn't swim in the water there though.

palin1388 - Thanks. Who knows how long I will be able to keep up this level of detail before I get impatient for a big city. It makes the game a lot more fun for me to think of it as a real place with a real history.

KingTitan - Yep. I like the region view with lots of farmland. I don't do very much detail work on the farms themselves though. Right now I've got a tile full of those horrible grain elevators.

calibanX - The smalltown set is so great, isn't it?

penguin007 - Thanks. Really short update coming up, but I should have another small one ready for tomorrow.

bbfan02 - Thanks. I found that American Foursquare picture just for you. It really is a cool set. It has a couple other styles that aren't in either of those pictures.

[cemaphon 0]

Snapshots

I will be adding to this post random pictures from around the region from time to time. Scenery, interesting buildings and other images that don't really fit into the theme of any particular update.

There are logging trails all over the thick pine forests north of Holden.

Watch out for bears!

An industrial complex on the south bank of the Olalla River. Sorry about the visible grid.

A large industrial center at Crook's Bend, where the Olalla and Pielle rivers converge. Glanton is just to the north, and many of its residents work here.

An overview of the Olalla river, where you can see the industrial centers. (the one on the far left is the complex in the Whitman update.) In the early days of American cities, industries tended to be located along rivers and harbors for ease of transport and access to water. Sometimes, this waterfront gets reclaimed for recreational or residential purposes, but most US cities have at least some industrial waterfront to this day. Needless to say, the citizens of Glanton get their drinking water from the Cedar River.

Thats all for now. Next update should be coming soon. A new industry comes to Whitman Bay!

[jacqulina 162]

very nice work there i love the first pic with the trails very scenic,great industry too my friend very nice work and pics so far

[siso43 13]

looks good your town

[Benedict 3,119]

Great first 2 pages - keep this stuff up!

[CasperVg 587]

Great job. I wouldn't like living in that industrial zone near the bend...

[Mikeaut1 261]

That's a boomin' industrial area!!

I really like your little Whitman St. town as well, it's very nice, small, village-like. I like the quaintness of your city journal. Very realistic as well!

[bbfan02 23]

Yeah, I agree! Great job on it!

[penguin007 27]

Nice pics this cj is getting better

Will

[2nerdy4u 1]

Nice work. The terrain texture you're using is nice. That shot of the river is excellent! Perhaps if you just made it smaller and added some text, you could use it as a banner in ur sig.

[pagenotfound 53]

Nice CJ

Just turn the grid off by hitting G

[palin1388 0]

I Like the logging trail. Just remember this is your story and we are along for the ride and it's been a sweet ride so far. I agree with 2nerdy4u about the last picture about making that your sig.

[edmonton_stinks 5]

Excellent variety of content. The American Four Square houses don't get enough use.

I always thought that a lot of them (such as the murder house) looked newer, kind of like houses that are currently being built in newer, upper middle class type suburbs in Calgary. If you want to see the ones I'm talking about, just google "Shane homes." I tried to BAT some of those before realizing that I can't BAT.

[cemaphon 0]

Replies

jaculina - Thanks. I need to work some more on my logging areas. The closeups look good, but the area shots don't look quite right.

siso43, Benedict, bbfan02, penguin007, pagenotfound, palin1138 - Thanks for the kudos!

caspervg, Mikeaut1 - yes, it's quite the polluter. It has killed a few of the nearby farms already. And the river is horribly polluted, so Glanton uses the Cedar River for their water source.

2nerdy4u - The terrain is Cycledogg's Olympic mod. It's great for the Pacific Northwest. You're right, that probably would be a good banner.

edmonton_stinks - Interesting link. The houses I saw on their website didn't really look much like the foursquare to me though. They had more complicated rooflines, and less rectangular floorplans. They look like pretty typical houses for newer suburbs in the US too though. Somebody should BAT them.

I should be able to get my next update up tonight.

[cemaphon 0]

Coal Fever

Up until 1905, the primary industries in Whitman Bay were agriculture and forestry. But that changed one day when a hunter tracking elk in the foothills of Mt. Erskine discovered an exposed coal vein. Within a year, rails were extended to the site, and a mine built.

Several mineral companies rushed geologists to the region, and before long, two other likely locations were found.

The newer mines featured a slightly more sophisticated extraction system.

A San Francisco trust financed this coking plant between the coal mines and Holden.

Before long, the miners were extracting so much coal that the railroads could not ship it fast enough. What to do?

In 1915, a group of entrepreneurs based right here in Glanton financed the building of a coal dock on the coast east of Holden. Within 3 years they had not only recouped their investment, but made over 100% profit.

The success of this venture set off a speculative craze among the business leaders of the towns around Whitman Bay. It seemed like everybody expected to make a fortune in shipping. So the coastline was regraded...

and a small seaport was built, along with some storage and transport facilities.

Unfortunately, with the industrial base of the area located along the Olalla River far from the seaport, most factories found it most convenient to continue shipping along the Northern Pacific Railroad line, and most of the original investors in the port went bust. It did manage to keep a trickle of goods flowing, especially once a spur of the railroad was built bypassing Glanton.

A transportation map with the old railroad line highlighted in red, and the new one in green.

By the late '30s, the port  had attracted enough business to be judged a belated success, although that was small comfort to the original investors. Before long, people started to talk about expanding the port once again. We'll take a look at this expansion, and some of its consequences next time around.

[bbfan02 23]

Very nice update! The coal mine looks very realistic. Keep up the good work.

-bbfan02-

[edmonton_stinks 5]

Uh oh, nasty environmental stuff coming up. Nice coal mine!