Our town was founded in 1855. Although most of the “Bleeding Kansas”
violence occurred in the eastern part of the territory, there were
skirmishes near Wolf Creek. It is now 1871, and the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe Railroad has recently reached the town (it will not reach Dodge
until 1872.) This has caused the town, which had previously been a
“respectable” hamlet, to rapidly double in size (and led to the rise of
Dogleg City, the seedy underside of the town.) Cattle drives are being
made to the railhead from Texas, and buffalo hunters and prairie wolfers
are active in the area. Several small farms and ranches dot the county,
and there are four large spreads nearby. There is also an army outpost,
Fort Braxton.
The northern part of town is older and more “respectable”, with a couple
of churches and a school. “Dogleg City”, on the other hand, is a den of
vice… with several gambling and drinking establishments, and a house of
ill-repute (and, in the “lowest” part of town, cribs and hog pens with
lower class prostitutes.) There is also an opium den.
The southernmost part of town used to be South Street, until Dogleg City
sprang up. A new street was designated “Grant Street” by the town
council, but the (mostly Texan) cowboys call it “Useless S. Grant
Street.”
It’s a wild, wide open town where no one asks about your past. Because almost everyone in Wolf Creek has a secret.
