Harrison, Idaho · 1900
Stake a claim.
Cut the timber.
Earn your deed.
In the shared valley, your neighbours' timber moves your prices.
You get 160 acres of fir, cedar and larch on the Coeur d'Alene River. Fell the stands, haul the logs to whichever mill pays best, raise a cabin and a barn, and replant before the woods run out. Prove up the claim and the land is yours.
- Free, in your browser
- Works on a phone
- Timber grows while you are away
How it plays
A day on the claim
Everything is a small decision with a number you can check. What you cut, haul and sell follows figures the game shows you, not dice, and the timber keeps growing while you are away.
Cut
Pick a stand that has matured. Mature timber gives about 12 logs a parcel and old growth about 16, less what is lost skidding them to the landing. Dull saws waste wood, so keep them filed.
Haul
The wagon takes the whole landing to one mill. Each mill pays differently by species and by how full its yard is, so the same load can bring very different money.
Build
Lumber is your money. Spend it on a cabin, a barn, a road to far parcels, a crew, or a small business in town.
Replant
Choose what goes back in the ground, and think about how long it takes to grow. A claim that is never replanted runs out of timber.
The choice that matters
Three mills, three prices
Harrison is close and fair. Medimont is farther and pays extra for redcedar, larch and lodgepole. Springston is the farthest and loves white pine. Distance costs you a share of every load.
A mill that is already full of logs bids less, so a big load changes the price for the next one. In the shared valley that includes the loads your neighbours send.
| Mill | Distance | Haul cost | Pays extra for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harrison | 3 miles west | 4% | A fair price on every species |
| Medimont | 6 miles east | 8% | Redcedar, larch, lodgepole |
| Springston | 10 miles west | 13% | White pine, ponderosa, Douglas-fir |
The goal
Prove up the claim
The land office wants to see a working homestead. Meet five conditions and the deed is issued. There are nine species of tree in the valley and you will end up caring about all of them.
- Build a cabin
- Build a barn
- Clear four parcels
- Replant two
- Produce 10,000 board feet
Then the real game starts
Join the valley
With a deed in hand you can take a claim in the shared Harrison valley: up to nineteen claims side by side, a Forest Reserve of tall timber, a townsite, and neighbours.
Neighbours
You can see your neighbours' land and buildings as of the last tick, and their scores to the nearest step. Their lumber, ledgers and accounts are not shown. What is visible, exactly.
The Mercantile
Grow wheat and apples and sell to a town that shops by need. The first to fill a gap in the town's economy does best.
The Forest Reserve
Buy stumpage by the stand when your own timber is young. Prices follow the log value, so read them.
Time moves on
Seventy years of timber
The whole valley moves from one era to the next together, so the tools, the haul costs and the prices change under everyone at once.
- 1900 to 1909HomesteadAxes, wagons and hand tools.
- 1910 to 1919Steam and railsSteamboats and rail shorten the haul.
- 1920 to 1939Gas enginesTrucks and tractors take over from teams.
- 1940 to 1969Power saw and highwayPower saws let a small crew do far more.
What it looks like
A survey plat, not a spreadsheet
The board is drawn like a land-office plat. Taller trees are older, a flag means ready to cut, and stumps mark cleared ground, so you never have to rely on colour alone.
Between sittings
Fly over the land
A seven minute cinematic flight over an imaginary North Idaho timberland estate, with a classical soundtrack that stays off until you turn it on. It is a place to see what a working holding looks like from above: ridges, cuts and boundaries.
Questions
Before you start
Does it cost anything?
No. There is nothing to buy and nothing to download. It runs in the browser on a laptop or a phone.
Do I need an account?
Yes, a free one, so your claim is waiting for you when you come back. The game keeps your player name, your sign-in times and a record of every action you take. The privacy note lists all of it, including what cannot be deleted.
How long does it take?
In testing, the first cut came about three minutes after sign-in. Two testers proved up a claim on the live server, one in about 40 minutes and one in roughly 50 to 55 minutes of careful play, so plan on 40 minutes to an hour, longer if you skip a crew-day or cut young timber. Most of that is waiting for the crew to rest, not playing. Six crew-days are ready at the start and each comes back 20 minutes after it is used, so a sitting spends the crew in about 15 minutes and then waits. Timber and the crew keep recovering while you are away, so the claim has moved on when you return. A short tutorial walks you through the first steps.
Is it real history?
The setting is a real place, Harrison, Idaho, around 1900. Much else is invented: the mills and their distances are stand-ins, and the prices, parcels and species values are the game's own numbers rather than historical data.
Can other players hurt my claim?
Nobody can touch your land, your lumber or your ledger. In the shared valley, though, what others sell moves the mills' prices, and they can see parts of your claim map. The privacy note spells out what they can see.
Is it finished?
No. It is in an early public test, so numbers get tuned between visits and screens still change.
What does it do with my information?
It keeps your player name, your sign-in times and every action you take, so the game can run. There is no advertising and no outside tracking, and the fonts and pictures all come from this site. The privacy note has the details.
The claim is surveyed and waiting.
Sixty-four parcels of timber, a river at the bottom and a mill road through the middle.
Start your claim