Harrisburg
Demographics
Harrisburg is owned and controlled by the descendants of the city's four founders. But the city gets its fair share of settlers and drifters from around the Harrisburg wasteland, and even the occasional long-distance caravan from the Pitt. Primarily Harrisburg is populated by the many hundreds of sharecroppers and caravaneers who work for the Keystone Caravan Company and its four families.
Government
The four families own and run the city of Harrisburg, they act as the executive class of the city and the caravan company. Beneath them the city is run much like a business, with many different working groups being placed in charge of its various infrastructure enterprises.
Industry & Trade
Harrisburg's agricultural leverage and strong caravaning business allowed it to make establish trade deals with both the Pitt and the Brotherhood of Steel which has set up locations across the KOP Wasteland.
Infrastructure
A large water treatment plant was brought online on the outskirts of the city, and provides clean water to the settlement, allowing it to become an agricultural powerhouse within the Keystone Commonwealth. In addition to this, the brahmin populations from around the region have allowed some of the families of the city to become prominent Brahmin barons, giving them uninhibited access to the caravan trade. Finally, a textile mill is run by one of the families, who also employs and trains a small mercenary organization who guards the caravans and also goes out on scouting missions into the city proper in search of scrap which can be used for trade.
History
On October 6th, 2231, Douglas Parks and his caravan found the ruined city of Harrisburg after their months long trek across the continental United States from the New California Republic. By the beginning of 2232 the first transcontinental trade route was charted by the Crimson Caravan Company, but to this date has only ever been completed by Douglas and his group.
Douglas Parks, Bethanie Detwiler, Richard "Dick" Jameson, William "Bill" McGlocklin and the others within their caravan began the work on creating their settlement. They first took refuge in an abandoned radio station found within the outskirts of the city, this section of the city was away from the Susquehanna River and much of the radiation that was found within the city's center. They named their first settlement, the Park because of its proximity to Colonial Parks, the region just outside the city proper of Harrisburg. Spring came late during their first year of settlement, and with the spring came a band of mutant raiders from deep within the city's center. Many died in the conflict, but through the decisive action of Parks and the remaining mercenaries they were able to repel the raiders and force them back into the center of the city. This battle cemented Parks as the Defacto leader of the fledgling settlement and caravan company and the newfound peace allowed the families to begin their own independent exploration of the region around the radio station.
Bill Mcglocklin and a handful of families ventured out into the hills surrounding the radio station, there they found a huge mansion untouched by the blasts of the Great War. There they created the McGlocklin Estate, the center of the McGlocklin Sharecropping Enterprise, the largest housing and sharecropping venture within the region and the agricultural backbone of the main office settlement.
Dick Jameson and his family found a bomb out textile mill site equipped with two preserved manufacturing plants and a slew of warehouses that were apparently left untouched by the Great War. Here the Jameson family created the Jameson Manufacturing Company, which now supplies much of the largely "junk" products that are sold and traded by the caravan company with the many other settlements throughout the Keystone Commonwealth.
Bethanie Detwiler and her husband ventured the furthest from the settlements of the rest of the original group, eventually finding a pre-war water treatment plant. Though the Susquehanna River was now horribly irradiated, the plant still offered the ability to bring dirty water in and have it purified, though this process took exurban amounts of energy. This worked for a time, but eventually the Detwilers discovered something far more valuable, the reservoir for the region of Colonial Parks. Bethanie gave her fellow compatriots a portion of her water purification business on the grounds that the rights to tap into a distribute the water from the reservoir and its water towers across the Harrisburg Wasteland rested Soley with her and her family.
Parks and the remaining families that staid at the radio station began to reach out and actively recruit people to come to the main office, Parks was also the first one to make contact with the leaders at The Pitt in 2260. Speaking with Lord Ashur the newly moving Keystone Caravan Company created a trade deal with the Pitt, they would provide the company with much needed steel and other building materials, and the caravan would send them clean water and whatever other food or agricultural materials they may need.
Through the decades the Main Office grew exponentially, fueled by their trade deal with the Pitt and other lucrative trade settlements across the Keystone Commonwealth. In 2275 a long-distance caravan went out in search of more settlements further east toward Philadelphia, on April 19th, 2275, this caravan radioed back to the main office that they had found several settlements within what those settlers called The KOP Wasteland. In June of 2275 the Keystone Caravan Company made contact with the town of Gulis, adding yet another trade post to their growing network. With Gulis the company gained access to the Philly Dark Zone, a highly irradiated and dangerous stretch of the city of Philadelphia which housed countless rare and expensive resources that would fetch an incredible trade price.
On July 4th, 2276, the caravan company unveiled its most ambitious venture to date. In honor of the quincentennial of the birth of the United States of America, the caravan company would be granting a five times reward for all caravaneers and scavengers willing to enter into the Philly Dark Zone and make contact with North Philly, the last settlement within the ancient pre-war city. The company also placed a standing bounty on the Liberty Bell of 5,000 caps for anyone who could bring the pre-war relic back to the Main Office. The contest lasted for the remainder of the month, but the bounty for the liberty bell is still ongoing.
In 2283 two Verti-birds arrived from Iron City within the KOP Wasteland, with them came Star Paladin White and a small contingent of brotherhood paladins. After a long negotiation the caravan company and Kodiak's Brotherhood of Steel created a trade agreement, creating the Steel Road, connecting Harrisburg to Iron City through Reading.
Alternative Name(s)
The Main Office
Type
Capital
Population
500
Owner/Ruler
Additional Rulers/Owners
Owning Organization
Comments