Intro: Mariston: From Villiage to Port in 15 years
In 1887, Mariston was a small farming community on the west coast of Inakaye. But in Just 15 short years the Villiage increased from around 1,000 inhabitants to 15,000, and included a heavy industrial sector with Inakaye's Third largest port after Auen and Duluth. This is a story of this transition.
Here is a series of images that shows Mariston's development into a larger farming community over the 7 years between 1887 and 1895.
1887
1888
1892
1895
each year, a couple dozen families moved to Mariston and set up farms or shops, the growth was quite natural, but in 1892 several important things happened that resulted in the arrival of industry to Mariston.
First, a native inakaye plant was discovered several years earlier that grew like a grass, had a slightly bitter tasting seed, but had fibrous seed pods like cotton. This plant (commonly called "cotton grass", scientifically grassus cashcropius) started to become wildly popular for its soft cloth and decent tasting ale made from grinding the seeds and fermenting them. Since it was native to Inakaye, it grew well in most of the fertile areas of the country. And, because many of the Mariston farmers grew at least some cotton grass, several textile mills opened up in the city to make "green cloth" or "inakaye silk" as it was sometimes called. This industry brought in many workers and farmers alike and the population of the region started growing rapidly.
Secondly, backwoods traders and explorers discovered that there was a connection between the Alexandra river and the Great Lake Audra. the source of the Alexandra river was a marshy swamp northwest of great lake Audra. it also happened to be the source of a smaller river that led into lake Audra. This river is Known as the Golashes River. See map below.
While the swamp was inavigable to larger crafts like barges, small boats could navigate it just fine, this meant that there was a direct water connection to the west coast, and with the building of a few locks and some widening of a path trhrough the marsh, it would be posssible for barges to navigate the waterway and make a direct trip from Duluth to Mariston. This became a source of conflict within the Inakaye government, seated in Auen. The Businessmen of Auen had spent a few million dollars on constructing a rail link between Duluth and Auen and were desirous of maintaining a monopoly on their trade. They were currently a middleman selling Duluth goods at a higher price to the rest of the west coast and the rest of the world, than if duluth had a trade route directly to these places. Yet, the Businessmen of Duluth Were desirous of expanding their markets to the north and perhaps the rest of the world, a water route to the west coast would make that possible. Thus the Auen government tried to stop any progress developing the water route, but the Duluth corporations began looking to make their own plans.
This discovery nonetheless made Mariston important for small items trade (like fur trading), and increased the traffic through the region, which brought in more businesses and settlers.
In 1895, the population had reached a little over 7,000. It was this year that the city council erected the first schoolhouse.
also a medical clinic was opened up.
In 1898, a lager Dockyard was put in. Also, this year, wealthy moguls from Duluth bought the swampy marsh from the Inakaye government for a pretty price and began construction on a waterway, it would be completed with the deaths of only a few workers by 1900.
Here is an overview of the city in 1899
The next part of this story takes place in wales . . .
Meanwhile in Wales . . .
In 1898 a hunter who was camping on the plains outside of Wales noticed the ground catch fire around his campfire, in fact the rocks began to burn and the fire got out of control and burned a hole the size of a house in the grassland. The hunter, named A.J. Grayson, knew exactly what he had discovered and immediately went to the Wales city council and bought a deed for the land. He then got a local investor to go into business with him in developing Grayson's Oil Field. below are some pictures of the field and the subsequent development of that field.
This new discovery brought all sorts of oild prospectors to the region looking for other oil fields and it also brought a refinery to process the crude oil. This increase in industry necessitated a larger seaport, which can be seen below,
This means big things for the growth of Wales! and has quite an effect on Mariston,
Back in Mariston
The source of oil in Wales meant trade of that oil through Mariston to Auen. It also posed a solution to one of Mariston's bigger problems at the time. The town by 1898 had increased to the point where its numerous small generators were all over capacity, and the rich people of Mariston could not sit through a dinner without experiencing a brownout. So a larger plant was needed, and with a steady flow of oil through the city, the city council passed plans for building a small Oil power plant. It would be placed on the shore next to Mariston's industrial distric which required the most power. here is a picture of the new plant along with the new zones created around it.
Thus the industry and population of Mariston continued to increase, and by 1900 the waterway from duluth was finished and barge traffic started coming down the Alexandra river. All of the sudden the Docks of mariston were overwhelmed with traffic and a real seaport needed to be constructed. In 1900 the first Industrial shipment from Mariston Port crossed the ocean to Simnation. Auen all of the sudden had a rival on worldwide trade. The first ship of immigrants from Simnation directly to Mariston Port arrived in the latter half of 1900, and by 1902, several thousand immigrants had arrived in Mariston bringing it's total population up to 15,276. Here are two overviews of the downtown and Mariston region.
And that, my friends, is how in 15 years a villiage became a major port.
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