Welcome to Harlan - A Year In Review (2001)
2001 Major Events in Altamont Pass
- Mar 2001 - Gold Discovered at Harlan Farm
- July 2001 - Harlan reaches population of 5,000
- August 2001 - Several Mines open in the City
- November 2001 - "The Great Fire" resulting from the Spooner Quake destroys a third of the buildings in the industrial sector.
- December 2001 - Trade Port opens to accept ship traffic / Dyn-O-Mite Diggers establishes Headquarters in Harlan
Our next stop on on photo tour brings us to the mining town of Harlan. Harlan is one of those boomtown stories that you used to read about in the history books. When the area was open for settlement, farmers set up on the flatlands to raise food, cows and livestock. The Harlan's owned a rather large track of land in the center of this township. One day, ol' farmer Harland was plowing out in his field when he noticed an area of his field that seemed to glisten in the sunlight. He jumped off his equipment and low and behold there was tiny flakes of gold mixed in with the soil. This find caused a rush of citizen to the area and the city of Harlan went from a population of about 50 in March, to over 5,000 by July. The town was named after Farmer Harlan and the rest is history.
Harlan is much different now then it was six months ago. Long gone are the expanses of fields and cattle, only to be replaced by asphalt and automobiles. Here is a shot of what you would see entering Harlan from I-280W. The town commercial district is very small and most do their shopping in neighboring Jago Bay.
Here is a picture of Northshore Harlan. Dyn-O-Mite Diggers recently established their headquarters here which brought the area some much more needed white collar jobs to the town. You can see Alta off in the distance across the bay.
Here is a close-up of the Dyn-O-Mite Diggers HQ. No suit have jumped from the windows yet as market prices have been pretty stable so far.
With all of the ore coming out of the ground here, there was only so much that trucks could move out. Late in the year, construction was completed on the regions first trade port. Now, massive amounts of ore and goods are loaded onto ships to be purchased and sold on the global market.
All loaded up and ready to float!
Here is the industrial sector of Harlan. The Spooner quake in November wreaked havok here as several factories caught fire. With all of the money flowing in Harlan though, the region bounced back rather quickly. In the background you can see one of four major mine complexes that occupy the old fields of Farmer Harlan. 24 mines operate in the area producing gold ore and coal.
Here is a remnant of the Great Fire. Harlan has since increased its fire protection to minimize an impact from such an event again.
The great quake also made Harlan move from depending on Altamont Pass for power as the lines were cut in the quake. General Power and Electric constructed this coal power plant that uses Harlan's very own coal to be self-sufficient.
Here is a close up of one of Dyn-O-Mite Diggers Ore Plant. Currently the area produces over 400 tons of gold and coal and is the lifeblood of Harlan at this time.
Hope you enjoyed the entry... Take care!
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