Queshire
Istar
So I'm making up the history of my main character's hometown where most of the story will take place. Admittedly this history won't come up much in the story but you know us writers, always nitpicking the tinniest thing. Anyways, I'd appreciate it if you guys could take a look at the history and tell me your opinions.
The main character's home town is named Quin's Folly, Minnesota. The story goes that in the 1800's there was this guy named Quin Queshire, (My pen name, a harmless little bit of self insertation there) who set up a larg strip mining operation in the Minnesota wilderness looking for iron, gold, and stone such as granite. The only problem was that there was a river in the way. Well, it was more of a stream. That was easy enough to fix though, he simply built a dam over it and kept mining away. It was a very successful opperation, he soon become very wealthy and had a large quarry. Unfortunately, one spring between the melting snow and severe rain, that pitiful little stream swelled up huge, broke the dam and burried the quarry under a ton of water, completely ruining the mining operation.
After that, Quin's Quarry became known as Quin's Folly, which futher became the name of the town that grew up on the shores of the artificial lake. As for Quin Queshire himself, nobody knows what happened to him after that, some say he died when the quarry flooded, other say he was simply ruined financially.
So, questions:
-Would this be a plausible story?
-Would strip mining have been invented at the time?
-Are there any other plot holes you guys can see?
-How could this history tie back into the main story? I'm thinking doing something with underwater tunnels or various stuff at the bottom of the fake lake from the mining opperation.
-Would the fake lake be pausible or would it have drained out? I mean, it has a small river feeding into / out of it plus rain, but would that be enough?
-Any other comments, suggestions, or input?
The main character's home town is named Quin's Folly, Minnesota. The story goes that in the 1800's there was this guy named Quin Queshire, (My pen name, a harmless little bit of self insertation there) who set up a larg strip mining operation in the Minnesota wilderness looking for iron, gold, and stone such as granite. The only problem was that there was a river in the way. Well, it was more of a stream. That was easy enough to fix though, he simply built a dam over it and kept mining away. It was a very successful opperation, he soon become very wealthy and had a large quarry. Unfortunately, one spring between the melting snow and severe rain, that pitiful little stream swelled up huge, broke the dam and burried the quarry under a ton of water, completely ruining the mining operation.
After that, Quin's Quarry became known as Quin's Folly, which futher became the name of the town that grew up on the shores of the artificial lake. As for Quin Queshire himself, nobody knows what happened to him after that, some say he died when the quarry flooded, other say he was simply ruined financially.
So, questions:
-Would this be a plausible story?
-Would strip mining have been invented at the time?
-Are there any other plot holes you guys can see?
-How could this history tie back into the main story? I'm thinking doing something with underwater tunnels or various stuff at the bottom of the fake lake from the mining opperation.
-Would the fake lake be pausible or would it have drained out? I mean, it has a small river feeding into / out of it plus rain, but would that be enough?
-Any other comments, suggestions, or input?