Headwater

By the time Amda had worked his spiritual magic on his flock, both Gateway Camp and Plateau Lake Outpost (650 miles farther) had been planned and the basic infrastructure of each completed. Before Amda’s effective evangelism had taken root, humex leaders expected only a mere trickle of wagoneers to continue the journey toward Nexra. The infrastructure (roads, a central meeting building, food warehouses, and water facilities) had been completed. The need now to quickly complete the secondary service structures for an initially unexpectedly large throng of humex travelers flowing into these respites was upon them. Accordingly, the first vocational call for new wagoneers required builders and service entrepreneurs. For Gateway Camp, construction of temporary facilities to handle the incoming wagons for three months at a time was first on the agenda. Giant pens for the wagoneers’ animals, both draft and food animals needed to adjoin the residential areas. These facilities needed to be configured so that wagoneers could arrive, rest and leave – all in a three month period – and in coordinated harmony. Other service facilities required of this particular stop (the terminus of 850 miles of rugged mountain terrain) were saloons and brothels, schools and churches, and repair and maintenance facilities.

The river that the humex had been following for 4,000 miles and over twenty-five years had ended. Its headwater was a large pond that collected snow melt from the towering mountains that served as vigilant guardians over the southern edge of the great plateau. Between Gateway Camp and Plateau Lake Outpost (which was actually fifty miles north of the headwater), the river had not been navigable, much of it running below ground, so wagons continued to be the transportation method by default.

Plateau Lake Outpost had the same initial problems as Gateway Camp, that is, beyond the already constructed primary infrastructure, secondary infrastructure needed to be completed quickly – only in much greater proportions since this was to be a permanent humex city. Rather than hold back the humex' urgent migration desire that Amda had fostered, the humex leadership felt that the moderate discomfort that the humex wagoneers would feel with the temporary lack of completed facilities was less important than the grand plan of reaching Nexra. And besides, a bit of discomfort would be helpful to promote the urgency to complete the journey to Nexra. It would be over two years before the trail would be completed to Prairie Lake Outpost, some 1,500 miles west. Humex leaders felt that after two years the wagoneers would be anxious to get back on the trail. They were now nearly half way to the “Promised Land” and would enjoy a far easier trail to negotiate than the first half of this journey.

Other than the typical movie activity connected with the great wagon train journeys of the American West in the 1800’s, including gun fights, Indian attacks, love stories and clouds and clouds of dust, the humex wagon trains had much in common with their future brothers and sisters.  Each train was required to be of a minimum or maximum length. Each train created a set of by-laws and elected a captain and other officers as the size of the wagon train deemed necessary. Each train was required to have a doctor or two. Animal tenders, supply masters and cooks were recruited.  Individual wagon dimensions were required to be within set guidelines to aid and abet maneuverability. Much of the wagon train lore written about in the novel, “Extinction Shrugged” was garnered from research on the American wagon trains.