Detailed Cartography: Shoreward

Shoreward

     Sherwood was the original logging port town near the forest and handled most of the original logging that took place until all the coastal wood had been harvested. Adrian Dante saw the end of the logging in Sherwood, and moved on east to the junction of Swift Creek and the Rush, where he set up new mills and a new town. The loggers found it easier to use Swift Creek and the Rush to get their wood to the sawmills and transport them, especially after the rails came to the city. Sherwood, having lost most of its woods to logging, gradually became slanged into "shoreward" as the direction where the shore lay.
     Sherwood''s economy shifted to fishing, and it would have completely collapsed with the establishment of Dante and the onset of the Depression if not for the success of the fishermen. Early on, a processing plant established on Carlyle Island saw to it that there would be a steady supply of fish, crab, and shellfish to the town, and local fisherman frequently would come back with their catches of the day to sell to citizens. The town's name of Sherwood gradually became corrupted by both the fishing industry as well as the logging, referring to it as "Shoreward" for the direction it lay instead of its proper name. The new name eventually stuck, since the wood around the town had completely been cleared. Shoreward later became the location of all of the dock warehouses, a natural fit because of its location, so old mills leftover from the logging days would be converted or demolished and rebuilt into warehouses to serve the docks and to store the logs and wood products that came from Dante.
     World War II saw Shoreward's warehouses full with military equipment, and this would be the last time that all of the warehouses were used. Rapid industrialization and faster shipping methods led to many of the warehouses becoming vacant. Today, many of these old, abandoned warehouses become the location of raves, or attract criminals who use them as storehouses for their goods, creating a lawlessness unseen since the Grind, pre-massacre.