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butchers_crossing

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Butcher's Crossing

This scenario is based on Butcher's Crossing, a novel by John Williams.

In search of a nature and the vanishing Old West.

Kansas, 1870.

The enormous herds of buffaloes are all gone. They have been hunted down by professional hunters with terrific efficiency. All that is left are small batches, scattered here and there around the endless prairie.

Some believe that a remote area somewhere could still hide a massive herd or two. Tales of such go around like legends from hunter to hunter, warming their hearts on evening fires.

Small town of Butcher's Crossing is no different. There is a tale going on, of a massive herd that is located somewhere in a valley between large mountain ranges.

Grains

  • The frontier is dying
  • See what lies beyond the ridge
  • Nature is man's peril, yet it can transcendent

William Andrews

William Andrews, a Harvard student in the early 1870s is not happy with the mundanities of everyday life. After becoming inspired by the poetry and philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson, he decides to leave his home in Boston and spend some time in the wilderness. While he is there, he hopes to discover who he really is.

Andrews travels across the country and finds his way to Butcher's Crossing, a tiny frontier town on the Kansas plains which is supported mostly by the business of local hunters and cattle ranchers, and which eagerly awaits the economic prosperity promised by the construction of a railroad through the town. Andrews seeks out J.D. McDonald, an old acquaintance of his father's, and finds him running a lucrative business in the trade of buffalo hides on the edge of town. McDonald offers Will a job doing paperwork for him, but Will turns him down, explaining that he's looking for a different kind of experience in the West; McDonald chastises him for his youthful idealism and naiveté, but points him to a local hunter named Miller. Miller is a seasoned mountain man and expert buffalo hunter and talks Andrews into joining him on a hunting trip. Miller claims to have stumbled upon a remote mountain vale in Colorado years ago, where a rare buffalo herd lives that few people have ever seen and which therefore promises a big payout. Andrews agrees to finance the trip, if only because he is looking for adventure.

(The introduction of William Andrews is quoted from Wikipedia .

Traits
3 Seeker of New
He has quit Harvard to find himself in the great west.
2 Well Read
As a college student he has vast knowledge of various things.
2 Naturalist
He believes that he can find peace of mind in the wild.
1 Driven
He is ready to do what it takes.
Burdens
1 Inexperienced
He lacks experience of the frontier.
1 One-track Mind
He is stubborn with his beliefs.

Discussion

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butchers_crossing.1524239638.txt.gz · Last modified: 2018/04/20 18:53 by entropyus