Harmony, AZ and the SCTC.

A Little Background on Harmony, Arizona and Environs

I decided to locate the town of Harmony west of Williams and what is now the Kaibab National Forest, in the vicinity of the town of Ash Fork. History buffs will appreciate that Harmony is close to the modern Route 66 (so get your kicks!) and BNSF (ex-ATSF) trackage.

I chose this location because it's my favorite part of Arizona, the terrain is varied, and early on I decided I wanted to model a mining camp of some kind as well as a more standard western town. A little research and a peek at the beautiful Sarissa Precision Sawmill kit, and voila! I knew the mining camp would actually be a timber company logging camp.

And so was born the Schitt Creek Timber Company...which is located 10 -15 miles east of Harmony. The area has abundant Ponderosa pine trees and running water to power the sawmill, and is close enough to both the Williams and Harmony railheads to facilitate the transport of cut timber. Since Harmony is relatively close to the SCTC, the town is an attractive weekend destination for thirsty (and horny) loggers.

The fictitious Schitt Creek flows in a southerly direction and feeds into the Verde River in the vicinity of Perkinsville. It's a spring creek that is supplemented by winter snow melt, so flow is year-round and can be quite fast.

Since the terrain around Harmony is relatively flat and the SCTC is located in higher elevations, building separate boards for Harmony and the SCTC allows me to model varying terrain. After all, you can never have too many game boards, right?

With the above in mind, and a wealth of kits and terrain material available I decided to start with the SCTC and I drew up a basic plan for a modular board in two sections, one for the camp proper, and one for the living area:

The Schitt Creek Timber Co.

In my next post, I'll go into more detail on the board construction and the buildings and scenery I'm using. Cheers!