So as we accumulate more Wild West town map assets, I wonder about how people are going to put them together and make up their own towns. In the past, we had towns built around farming, water sources, river traffic, railroad traffic, mineral/resource extraction (mining, timber), and overland cattle or immigrant traffic. There were also towns that grew up around army forts, however, those forts were usually put in place for one of the other reasons.

Dodge City Kansas was originally a settlement next to Fort Dodge, the fort and town both supported westward migration over the Santa Fe Trail. Four years later after it was founded, homesteaders got the legislature to push the Texas cattle quarantine west of Abeline, and Dodge City became a booming cow town.

Building Type	Farming	Immigrant	Mining	Railroad	Ranching	River
Assay Office			Only very large
Bank
Barber and Dentist
Billiards
Blacksmith
Boarding House
Brothel
Butcher
Church
Courthouse
Dance Hall
Dentist
Drug Store
Dry Goods
Firehouse
Freight Company
Funeral Parlor
General Store
Glaziery
Grain Elevator
Gun Shop
Hospital
Hotel
Ice House
Jail
Jeweler
Land Office, claims	Territory or State Government	Territory or State Government	Only very large	Territory or State Government	Territory or State Government	Territory or State Government
Laundry
Lawyer
Lumber Mill			Yes			Often
Marshal’s Office
Mines			Hard Rock mines			Panning not mining
Newspaper
Pawn Shop
Photography Studio
Post Office
Restaurant	Only very large	Only very large	Only very large	Only very large	Only very large	Only very large
Saloon
Schoolhouse
Seamstress, Tailor
Second-Hand Goods
Sheriff’s Office
Smokehouse
Stables and Corrals
Stock Yards				Yes	Yes
Telegraph Office
Theater
Wainwright, wagons	Yes	Yes
Warehouse			Yes	Yes		Yes
Water Tower				Yes
Windmill

Looking at some of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, I am trying to see what some famous towns had for building types, the reality check, so to speak. Worked everything on Deadwood October 1885, Image 3. Lots of Vacancies (Vac) and Dwellings (Dwg). Worth noting the town founded in later 1875 was at its peak in 1876, the town burned down in 1879 there were 3,777 people in the 1880 census, down from the peak, and the nearby town of Lead absorbed a lot of the population. In 1883 Deadwood was electrified and had its own generating plant. This is reflected in the 1885 Sanborn maps.

Building Type	Deadwood	Dodge City	Ft Worth	Miles City	Tombstone	KDCTC
Agricultural Implements	Yes		Yes	Yes
Assay Office	Yes
Auction House			Yes
Bakery	Yes		Yes	Yes
Baking Powder Factory			Yes
Bank	Yes		Yes			Y
Barber	Two		Yes			Y
Bath House			Two
Beer Garden			Yes
Beer Vault, between Carraige house and Saloon			Three
Black Smith	Two		Yes	Two		Y
Boarding House	Yes		Yes
Books, & Variety, & Confectionary, & Jewelry FT Worth	Yes		Yes
Bootmaker			Yes
Boots & Shoes			Yes
Brewery	Yes			Yes
Calaboose, prison next to City Hall Ft Worth			Yes
Card Room, behind a Barbershop			Yes
Carpenter	Three		Yes
Carpets			Yes
Carriage House	Yes		Yes
Carriage Works, Ft Worth image 6			Yes
Church	Four		Yes
Cigar			Yes
Cigar, Gasoline & Oil, that’s a combination			Yes
Cistern House, well, pump, windmill			Yes
City Hall			Yes
Clothing	Four		Yes	Yes
Coal House			Yes
Cobbler				Yes
Coffins			Yes
Confectionary, Confectionary & News, Ft Worth	Yes		Yes
Corniceworks			Yes
Corral, horse, or stock (cattle)	Yes		Yes	Two
Cotton Gin & Corn Mill			Yes
Cotton Yard			Yes
Courthouse			Yes
Dance House & Wine Rooms part of a Theater	Yes					Y
Dentist			Yes
Doctor			Yes			Y
Dressmaker			Yes
Drug Store	Yes		Yes			Y
Dry Goods			Yes
Dye House			Yes
Electric Power Plant, Deadwood	Yes
Express Office	Yes		Yes	Yes
Fancy Goods			Yes
Fancy House, Brother, House of Ill Repute						Y
Female Boarding	Three		Yes
Fire Engine House, Steam; Hell’s Half Acre had a Firehouse			Two
Fish			Yes
Flour Mill	Yes		Yes
Freight Co railroad depot			Yes
Freight Wagon Yard, near railroad			Yes
Fruit	Yes		Yes
Furniture & Crockery	Yes
Furniture & Queensware (China dishes), Cabinetwork	Two		Yes
Furniture Repair	Yes		Yes
Galvanized Ironworks			Yes
Gambling	Two		Yes			Y
Gas Fitting			Yes
Gas & Light Co. Gas Works, Ft Worth			Yes
General Merchandise				Yes		Y
German Club Hall, Deutscher Verein Halle like a theater, image 6			Yes
Grain	Yes		Yes	Yes
Grain Elevator & Warehouse, near railroad			Yes
Grocery	Two		Yes
Gun & Machine Shop	Yes
Guns	Yes		Yes			Y
Guns & Tobacco	Yes
Gunsmith, 512 Houston, Guns, Pistols, Sporting Goods, Repairs			Yes
Hardware	Two		Yes			Y
Harness & Saddlery	Two		Yes			Y
Hay & Feed			Yes
Horse Trader, there are so many liveries there must be dealers			Implicit			Y
Hospital	Yes
Hotel			Many	Five		Y
Ice House, Retail Ice, Ice Company 20+ tons per day			Yes	Two
IronWorks, Las Vegas, NM, had one.
Jail, Ft Worth County Jail	Yes		Yes
Job Printing			Yes
Junction House, near railroad			Yes
Knights of Honor Hall			Yes
Laboratory, Ft Worth			Yes
US Land Office, corner West Main, and Gold.	Yes		Yes
Laundry, Chinese Laundry, Steam Laundry	Three		Yes	Yes
Lawyer’s Office						Y
Library Deadwood had a 1,000-book-lending library	Yes
Liquor	Yes		Yes	Yes
Livery	Two		Yes	Yes		Y
Lock & Gunsmith, LasVegas NM
Lodge, Ft Worth has a Colored Lodge in 1885 image 9			Yes
Lodging	Yes		Many	Yes
Lumber Storage, Lumber Yard	Yes		Yes	Yes
Lunch			Yes
Machine & Boilerworks, Foundry,			Yes
Machine Shop			Yes
Machinery Depot, Ft Worth image 2 1885			Yes
Masonic Hall	Yes		Yes
Mattress Maker	Yes		Yes
Meat, butcher shop, Smokehouse & Poultry Shed	Two		Yes
Meat Co. & Slaughterhouse			Yes
Millinery			Yes
Musical Instruments			Yes
Newspaper, Ft Worth Gazette			Yes
News Stand			Yes
Offices	Two		Many
Oil Mill, steam presses seeds to make vegetable oils			Yes
Opera House			Yes
Paint Shop, sold paint, sometimes attached to Drugstore	Yes		Yes	Yes
Painting often attached to Woodworking			Yes
Pawn Broker	Yes
Photo Gallery	Yes		Yes
Planing Mill	Two		Yes
Plumbing			Yes
Post Office	Yes		Yes	Yes
Produce			Yes
Public School	Yes		Yes
Queensware (China dishes)	Two		Yes
Restaurant	Four		Yes			Y
Restaurant & Lodging	Yes		Yes
Restaurant & Wine Room			Yes
Rubber Stamp Manufacturing			Yes
Saloon	Eleven		22	Five
Saloon & Billards	Yes		10
Saloon & Dance Hall, Ft Worth			1
Saloon & Gambling	Yes		2	Yes
Saloon & Lodging	Yes		3	Yes
Saloon & Lunch			1
Saloon & Restaurant, Ft Worth			2
Sash, Door & Blind Factory, Scroll Sawing & Turning			Yes
Savings Bank & Jewelry			Yes
Second Hand Furniture			Yes
Second-Hand Goods	Yes
Second-Hand Clothing			Yes
Sewing Machine			Yes
Shanties			Yes
Sheriff’s Office						+Marshal
Shoemaker			Yes
Shooting Gallery			Yes
Skating Rink	Two		Yes
Soda Water Factory, Ft Worth			Two
Stage Stables	Yes					Y
Stationery			Yes	Yes
Steam Printing, oh yes, steam the adjective			Yes
Stone Cutting			Yes
Stoves & Tinware			Yes
Tailor	Yes		Yes	Yes
Telegraph Office	Yes			Yes		Y
Telephone Exchange			Yes
Tenements			Yes
Theater, Variety, Opera, Comique	Yes		Yes			Y
Tin Shop, Tin & Sheet Iron Shop	Two		Yes
Tobacco	Half?					Y
Train Depot			Yes			Y
Trolley Stables, Ft Worth, Street Car Stables			Yes
Undertaker			Yes
United Brothers of Friendship Hall, off Hell’s Half Acre			Yes
Upholstery			Yes
Vinegar Factory			Yes
Wagon Shop, Wagon Parts, Carriage shop	Two		Yes			Y
Wagon Storage, Wagon Yard	Yes		Yes
Wallpaper next to a Paint Shop			Yes
Watchmaker	Yes
Water Works & Plumbing			Yes
Water Work Pump House			Yes
Warehouse, detached, not a back room to retail	Three		Yes	Yes
Well & Pump, with or w/o Windmill attached			Yes	Yes
Wheel Wright			Yes
Wood & Coal Yard			Yes
Woodworking			Yes	Yes
Wool & Hides, Hides in Ft Worth, Wool Warehouse			Yes

I’m going to talk about a few special cases, there were only eleven Federal assay offices after 1874 that would buy precious metals and melt them down to mint new coins and bullion. Some were colocated with existing Federal Mints. However, there might be somebody in your town who either was a goldsmith or the bank might take your gold dust and nuggets on deposit. Saloons in mining towns might take gold dust in trade for whisky, cigars, and other things. Deadwood had an Assay Office and a Land Office because real data beats theory.

Every state and territory had a land office where you could register a homesteading claim, and later mining claims, this was public land people were claiming, and in both cases, they needed to put $100 worth of labor into the land every year for five years to get the land. The railroad companies were given public land near their railroads not only to build the train tracks and infrastructure but also to sell to settlers so that towns might spring up and train stops might flourish. So a railroad town might also have a land office, where you paid for a plot instead of working a plot for the sweat equity of owning it later.

Today there are 94/97 US Marshals offices in the US, one would assume there are fewer during the westward expansion period. I’d like to put together a list for folks to be able to wire the Marshal wherever and be historically accurate if they want to be.

Looking at my hometown of Fort Worth they had a newspaper the Gazette that had offices, press, and binders, compositors offices (layout), editorial rooms, Otto Silent Gas Engine (to run the presses?) and they seemed to do job printing out of the first floor under the compositor’s rooms.

We’re going to create a list of buildings a great steampunk setting might have, machine shops were very rare in the early 1800s, and blacksmiths and other ironworkers eventually gave way to machinists, but it took some doing to build that industry in the US, for a while Britain had a monopoly on quality steel and machine manufacturing. Japan went to great lengths to modernize its industries even before the Meiji restoration.

Building Type	Description and placement notes
Airfield	Literally, a field where airships can land, workers would have stakes, hammers, rope, ladders, water, hydrogen generators, coal gas generators, rubber cement, silk, goldbeater skin, and canvas for patching airbags. Depending on traffic, a small passenger waiting area with benches similar to a train station.
Clockworks	This building is split into a retail display area as well as a more workmanlike warehouse area and a small workshop. In the various areas, you can find anything from the parts to repair a pocket watch, grandfather clocks, and larger gears. The largest spring motors they stock can power trolley cars.
Coaling Station	A coal repository setup to service commercial and military needs. This would support a naval port, airfield, or train depot.
Foundry	Pours molten metals into molds and casts all kinds of items from them, the Pullman company developed cast iron bogie wheel trucks for their trains that weighed less and could bear greater weight than the trucks made in England at the time.
Gunworks	A series of machine shops that make gun parts and hand assemble them. Other parts of the facility would involve proofing the barrels by test-firing new guns to see if they explode. Birmingham UK is a decent model of a Gunworks.
Ironworks	Las Vegas, New Mexico, had an IronWorks.
Laboratory	Morse, Bell, Marconi, Edison, and Tesla had laboratories, and so did Jekyll and Frankenstein. If you wanted to work on Biology, Chemistry, or Electricity, you needed a lab. Tesla borrowed power from a Denver utility, Edison built his own plants, and your lab is going to need supplies from somewhere, airships, railcars, steamers, and freight wagons can bring in what you can’t find locally.
Outfitters	Man-portable high-pressure steam tanks, Elephant rifles, ammunition, arctic cold weather clothing, six weeks rations, and a case of port all transferred to your airship within the hour. Now, will you be paying in dollars, pounds, francs, bullion, or precious gems? Many outfitters just sold clothes, but during the 1800s, some went above and beyond, selling to the military as well as explorers, they sold travel trunks, swords, firearms, camp supplies, and whatever else you needed to explore the arctic, deserts, islands, jungles and other wilderness environments.
Smelter	Removes impurities from raw ores, and produces refined metals.
Steamworks	A manufactory where steam boilers are built, piping and fittings are assembled, old pressure vessels can be maintained, and the services of welders as well as their supplies can be obtained. Steam velocipedes, Traction engines, high and low-pressure steam engine repairs, sales, and rentals. The one I found in Fort Worth, Texas was called a Machine & Boiler Works but since we’re not playing BoilerPunk, Steamworks it is.

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Paul

Evilrobotgames at Gmail.com