Cawk’s Hill is a town nestled in the Wind River Mountain range somewhere in the western Wyoming territory. The weather-beaten sign on the outskirts of town indicates that it has a population of 330 people.
The town itself is tucked into a small valley with a swift river running through it that the locals refer to as Blood River. The boom in gold and silver mining have caused the river to appear red at times from the iron-laden clay that runs off the multiple mining sites. This happens so frequently these days that the river’s original name has faded from memory. At some point it runs into the Platte River.
The valley is surrounded by the foothills of the nearby range. Fremont peak is not far away and can be seen in the distance, snow-capped and all. The terrain is very hilly with some large open areas that amount to low plateaus. There always seems to be a chill in the air. Even during the summer, a cool breeze will rush down from the nearby range.
The townsfolk themselves are generally quiet and unassuming. They don’t care for outsiders much as they usually are involved in some kind of trouble eventually. Tensions seem to be high as the population has nearly doubled in recent months due to the discovery of gold and silver by local prospectors. Even through their efforts and payoffs to quell the rumors of riches, they still reached the east.
Furriers abound as the region is teaming with wildlife and all manner of dangerous beasts. Some of them have reputations of being tough and treacherous. The timber industry is also rapidly growing as there is a fortune to be had in exporting the wood back east and onto other countries.
The Crow natives present a problem to the encroaching settlers from the east. Often, they will attack a caravan of wagons just to dissuade more settlers from coming west, taking nothing and leaving only the evidence of brutality.
Fort Laramie is the nearest military installation housing the local contingent of U.S. Calvary and troopers, but it is at least a day’s ride east of Cawk’s Hill. A fair number of former U.S. soldiers live here after they have discovered gold or silver and decided to stay once their duty to their country was completed.
The saloon is rather large for the size of the town, but has been upgraded many times on account of the new interest in prospecting and the constant flood of outsiders.
If you ask anyone in town they will say that the true danger are the brutal winters and they always seem busy preparing for it.
