Raccoon Lake Map (Preliminary)

Hey friends! Thank you all so much for bearing with me while I try to get this campaign ramped up … It's been a busy month with freelance and prep for Anthrocon in a few weeks. I promise I'm gonna do something nice for all my "early investors" before the comic campaign proper launches in a few months.

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy a sneak-peak at a preliminary map I was working on (mocked up as a hybrid "Goople Maps" page) … this is Raccoon Lake, both the name of a body of water and a small city the story of Loop Garoo takes place in!

There's no defined location of exactly where Raccoon Lake is; it's nebulously somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, somewhere northeast of the San Francisco Bay Area. (Whether it's even in California or not is left open-ended.) The lake itself, tucked in a narrow mountain valley and carved out by glaciers millions of years ago, is named for its unique and evocative shape. The Raccoon River feeds the lake from the northeast end, and drains from the southwest end towards the Pacific Ocean. State Highway 13 roughly follows the river and runs along the southern shore of the lake, with a spur rout hugging the north shore.

There are three small towns around the lake. The small former mining town of Heavy Rock is at the upper end, hugging an almost vertical rock face on the mountain just to its south. At the lower end is Vale Falls, named for the low waterfall that drains back into the Raccoon River. And the largest town, Raccoon Lake … founded as aa stopping point and trading post for pacific-bound travelers in the 1800s … lies midway along the southern shore. A seasonal ferry boat runs between the three towns. There's also a state recreation area along the spur route on the northern shore with swimming and boating; Mask Island and Arch Island have a few walking trails and picnic groves accessible by canoe or rowboat, but are otherwise undeveloped. Likewise, other than a few mountain roads and a few small settlements here and there, most of the surrounding terrain is highly mountainous and forested.

The geography of the towns are the most "preliminary" and still being worked on, on this version of the map. I know Raccoon Lake has a fairly grid-structured downtown with homes and businesses, which dissolves into more twisting rural roads up the side of the mountain where some of the more upper-class houses and estates are. To be honest, Vale Falls should probably have more of those kind of winding-along-the-mountainside roads, and Heavy Rock should be a bit more ramshackle; but that's what pre-development is for, right? :)

A few locations of interest to the story are marked out as well. Quela's Diner downtown will be a sort of social focus point thru much of the story, and the New Age Occult Shoppe features a very pivotal early scene. Jaymes Monday is the main character's father, who is also the newly-hired sheriff of the town; his home and office are both marked, as are Town Hall and the Mayor's house. Yuri's Cabin will come into play a few issues into the story. As will the proposed lakeside casino northeast of town.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this little tour of Raccoon Lake! I'll send along s'more development stuff soon … and in the meantime, thank you again for your support! It means so much. <3