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Oregon City (redirected from Morrow Project: Oregon City)

Page history last edited by Michael 9 years, 7 months ago

back to the Index or the Willamette Valley page

 

population about 3000

 

 

     This city is the center of industry and commerce for the Willamette Valley.


Origin

 

Pre-War


     Residents of the Willamette Valley around Oregon City.

 

Post-War


     By the end of the Long Winter, there were several hundred survivors living in the ruins of Oregon City. Heavy floods had destroyed much of the lower city, especially in 1996 -- everything below the bluffs was submerged for almost a week.

 

What Outsiders Know


     Within the Northwest, Oregon City is seen as an industrial powerhouse, a haven for women, and a bunch of penny-pinching merchants.

 

The Reality


     The twenty or so groups which control the city form a sort of bureaucratic technocracy. There is a lot of tension in the city:  the city vs. the Combine, guilds vs. the civil bureaucracy, Minutemen as a threat to the current government, the city vs. the Harris clan (regarding trade, transport, and electrical power), the city vs. less "advanced" communities in the Willamette Valley, patriarchal communities vs. the (relatively) free and attractive status of women in Oregon City ...

     Changes in technical ability cause some trouble:  new skills either call for a new guild, or they get shoehorned into an existing guild.

     Guild protections result in higher prices for many of the city's products, within the city itself -- for example, if the River Folk want to sell a

 

Population

 

     Nearly 3000 persons live in and near Oregon City as of 2139.

 

Territory and Locations


     Besides Oregon City itself, the town controls about 15 kilometers of railway line, south to the sawmill at Liberal.

 

Organization

 

     The various unions, halls, fraternities, companies, coalitions, leagues, clubs, co-ops, partnerships, and so forth which control the town are essentially guilds, very protective of their protected status. There are guilds for:

 

  • gunsmiths (Gun Club)

  • machinists, smiths, armorers and foundrymen (Machine Shop)

  • engineers (Live Steam League)

  • carpenters

  • millwrights

  • butchers

  • plumbers

  • bakers and grocers (Co-op)

  • brewers (Oregon Beer Company)

  • vintners (Winemakers' Guild)

  • railway workers (Rail Workers' Union)

  • printers (Printing House)

  • electrical workers (Public Utility District)

  • etc. ...

 

     Organizations that aren't part of the guild structure include the Willamette Falls Hospital, the schools, the Fire Department, the police, the Post Office, the Bank of Commerce (which doesn't make loans, it's mostly for safe storage of money and valuables), the Spectator newspaper (published weekly), and the Minutemen.

 

Government, National and Local


     The heads of the guilds choose the Mayor, from among themselves. The current mayor is Fred Willis, head of the Machine Shop. The town is a member of the Combine, and has a resident Regulator.

     The militia is composed of all men between age 16 and 60; within the militia are the Minutemen. Minutemen are volunteers, aged 18 to 30, who receive training and agree to be ready for service on short notice. They number about 250 soldiers, who assemble for training at intervals based on the threat of war -- in peacetime, about once a season; when war looms, at least twice a week. The Minutemen are divided into five companies of 50 men each; they are expected to show up for assembly within 20 minutes of the alarm.

     The estates of dead persons pay 10% to the city.

 

Justice, Social Control, Punishment


     It's kinda "Judge Roy Bean":  there are monetary fines, a jail for short-term incarceration (less than two weeks), a work camp for longer imprisonment, and hanging for the worst crimes. The Mayor serves as judge, with a jury required for fines over $200, imprisonment more than two weeks, or hanging. The Mayor and his (or her) guild are responsible for establishing and paying bounties; other guilds will sometimes establish a bounty, with the Mayor's approval. The laws are more or less those in effect in 1940s Oregon. Horse theft usually receives a punishment of six months at the work camp.

     Most homeowners or merchants possess a firearm on their premises, which tends to discourage burglars. Theft of firewood and laundry are about the commonest property crimes. Rape and kidnapping are actually very rare in Oregon City; offenses against women and children are treated particularly harshly. The old, the weak, women and children are almost never attacked. Homicides are about equally divided between "saloon fights upgrading from fists" and "robber gangs" (like Ted's). In a typical year, 3 or 4 homicides occur; 1 or 2 persons are found guilty and hanged.

     Arrests for drunken brawling keep the police busy.

     Besides "ordinary" crimes, the court resolves guild disputes, looks into accusations of gambling fraud, and investigates charges of "trading with the enemy" -- which almost never result in anyone being punished.

 

Political Factions, Dissent


     Besides the fact that each guild is a faction, there are other notable groups:

 

  • the Harris clan, which operates the river locks and hydroelectric power plants on the Willamette River

  • the River Folk, traders from up on the Columbia River

  • refugees

  • exiles from the Tualatin kingdom

 

Famous/Infamous Persons

 

     Blah blah ...

 

Relationships with Other Groups


     Oregon City trades with just about anyone. As a member of the United Combine, however, they're "at war" with the Purity Corp and the Hand of Jehovah. Senior guild leaders see this as an impediment to trade.

 

Culture

 

Ethnic Groups, Emigration and Emigration

 

     Establishing citizenship in Oregon City requires either:

 

  • one parent was a citizen; or:

  • residence in the city boundaries for a year, with no absences of a month or more; AND ownership of real estate; AND payment of taxes; AND possession of at least $200 worth of portable wealth; or:

  • membership in a recognized guild, AND the guild's sponsorship

 

Social Divisions and Castes


     Social mobility is pretty much about technical skill or wealth; inheritance plays a role, of course.

 

Religion, Beliefs and Superstition


     The locals are nominally Protestant Christians.

 

Morality and Values


     Blah blah ...

 

Progress and Failure


     Blah blah ...

 

Family, Age, Sexuality and Gender


     Blah blah ...

 

Education and Language


     The city operates a free public school for children up to age 14 (in the former high school building); any further "general" education is through private tutors, or at OSU in Corvallis. The spoken language is Road Talk; written ("Ancient") language is much closer to 20th Century English.

 

Environment and Agriculture


     The Willamette River is probably cleaner than it was in 1989, but residents of Oregon City (and most towns in the Valley) don't like to drink the water or eat fish from the river. No doubt fallout was washed into the river for decades after the Atomic War, but Team R54 doesn't see any contamination during the summer and fall.

     Heavy rains and floods might still bring some toxic material or mild fallout down the river, of course.

 

Food


     Blah blah ...

 

Art and Entertainment, Music, Literature, Recreation


     Blah blah ...

 

Fashion and Appearance


     More or less early-Twentieth-Century in appearance. In common with most other Willamette Valley communities, men wear red or yellow suspenders, and everyone wears straw sun hats. The hats come in a wide variety of shapes, but all have a cord-and-fabric chin strap, and you could call some of them "Japanese-looking"; the common ones in Oregon City are shaped like the bowl of a spoon, with the point forming a bill.

 

Urban and Rural Areas, Architecture


     Blah blah ...

 

Equipment and Resources

 

     The 12 meter high dam at Willamette Falls produces 5 or 10 megawatts of electricity for Oregon City and the surrounding areas; the locks and dam are zealously guarded by the Harris clan. A few miles of railway are in use around the city, and there has been talk for years about rebuilding the rail line south into the Valley -- but the Harris clan has worked to undermine any rail-building plans. Besides a few steam locomotives, there are horse drawn trolleys operating on about 2 kilometers of the streets.

     The city's water supply comes from about 30 kilometers east, at the River Mill Dam on the Clackamas River; the Public Utility District has considered repairing the power generating system there from time to time.

     Crafts and industry (at a pre-Civil War level) power the economy:  smithing and light industry, papermaking, lumber mills, weaving, canning, leather tanning, etc. 

 

Economy


     Blah blah ...

 

Science, Medicine and Technology


     Blah blah ...

 

Weapons and Military Equipment

 

     Most of the militia own a breech-loading, cap-and-ball black powder rifle. The Minutemen have better gear, some of it provided by the town; some of them will have shotguns, grenade launchers, revolvers, etc.

     The militia armory has six muzzle-loading smoothbore cannon available, with limbers etc.; however, the militia's artillerymen rarely train. The armory is at the southwest edge of the town, and includes a rifle range and drill field.

     The Gun Club can repair many parts of cartridge weapons; and there are a moderate number of cartridge weapons in the town, imported at high prices. Only a few types of cartridge ammunition are available, again imported from far away. Almost always available are black powder cartridges for .22 Long Rifle, .38 Special, and 12 gauge buckshot. The military stores 40mm grenades, but doesn't sell them.

 

Communications


     Literacy is high, by 22nd Century standards; the Spectator newspaper is published weekly (four pages per issue, with four columns on each 11.5x17-inch page; circulation about 1,000 copies), and various guild texts, yearbooks, school books, reference works, and even a few works of fiction are printed. Most are printed on hand presses or small job presses; the Printing House owns a building full of out-of-order rotary presses, photocopiers, and other advanced printing machinery.

     Very few private homes are connected to the telephone service. The government, guilds, emergency services, utilities, and railway are the main users. The militia has half-a-dozen CB radios, of which four are "portable" (on horses, carrying batteries).

 

Vehicles


     Oregon City has two railway locomotives powered by methanol-burning engines, plus two wood-burning steam engines (a 2-8-0 built in Germany in 1904 for  Russia, and a Baldwin 2-6-0 built in 1902 for the Southern Pacific). A passenger coach is attached to a lumber train going to Liberal every morning, and it returns with the last train of the day.

     There are a couple of "scrap tanks" at Oregon City, built by the Machine Shop as donations "for the common defense". A few trucks, tractors and other slow, heavy vehicles are powered by steam, methanol, gasogen, or other typical post-apocalyptic engines.

     Two horse-drawn trolleys operate during in the city, from sunrise to a couple of hours after sunset.

 

Aircraft


     None.

 

Watercraft

    

     Except for a few small boats for maintenance around the dams, mills, and locks, water traffic is under the control of the Harris clan. Barges, log rafts, and power boats pass through the locks regularly. Passing through the lock takes about two hours; a dozen men (all members of the Harris clan) operate the lock gates and valves.

 


Work on occupational breakdown - not complete yet

 

people under 15:   20%
   school age about 300
people 60+:  20% (though of course many of these are still "occupied")
remainder:  1800, of which 1200 are men
   600 adult women under age 60:  all but 50 are married; of those 50, 25 are dancers, prostitutes, and entertainers; the remaining 25 are mixed in with professions below

  • Agriculture, fisheries and mining 46%:  552

    • Farmhands

    • Herdsmen, stockyard hands:  100

    • Fishermen: 100

    • Bakers, grocers, butchers, cannery hands:  252

    • Brewers, vintners:  100

  • Professional service 4%:  48

    • Teachers:  18

    • Doctors, pharmacists, veterinarians, dentists and nurses:  12

    • Lawyers:  4

    • Clergy:  6

    • Bankers and bank tellers, accountants (not in other industries):  3 

    • Government officials:  5

  • Trade and transportation 18%:  216

    • Railway workers:  40

    • Teamsters, drovers, dock workers, warehousemen:  126

    • Boatmen:  50

  • Manufacturing and mechanical industries 20%:  240

    • Lumber mills:  20

    • Paper mills: 20

    • Cloth mills:  30

    • Machinists, smiths, foundrymen, armorers:  40

    • Craftsmen, woodworkers, cabinetmakers, jewelers, watchmakers, gunsmiths:  60

    • Engineers:  20

    • Millwrights:  10

    • Plumbers:  15

    • Printers:  10

    • Weavers and tailors, seamsters  15

  • Domestic and personal service 10%:  120 men

    • Janitors, cooks, grooms, butlers, bartenders, waiters, bath attendants, garbagemen:  60

    • Guards, night watchmen:  20

    • Carpenters, housepainters, glaziers:  40

  • Other 2%:  24

    • Fire fighters:  14

    • Police:  6

    • Postmen:  4

 

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