Arafed man sitting in the woods with a dog on his lap

Baron Jacob 'River Hull' Mitchell holds tenuous governance over the dense forests, cold streams and bountiful wildlife comprising Wexford County from his remote timber trading hall Beaver Creek Lodge. His grandfather Jacques 'Beaver Tail' Michel first pioneered the region as a French-Canadian voyageur in the early 1800s when the territory transferred into American control through contentious treaties. He married a daughter of the prominent Odawa war chief Wahbememe and calibrated complex trade accords between competing factions. Inheriting this delicate legacy mediating between ambitious colonial interests and displaced tribes struggling to retain their ancestral lifeways, Baron Jacob "River Hull" adopted his Anglo name to ease negotiations with the English speakers dominating regional politics and commerce. From Beaver Creek Lodge gather Odawa clan mothers, Yankee lumber bosses, and Episcopal ministers to feast, smoke pipes, play fiddles and negotiate seasonal bounty quotas and land access issues according to sustainability practices rather than arbitrary colonial maps. A progressive traditionalist, Baron Mitchell believes prospering modern settlements can coincide with First Nation autonomy across this vast hinterland. By spring river drives and fall harvests he ensures balance of amenities and justice. Come the first snows, Wexford again returns to ways governed by winter stars, frozen lakes that crack like cannon blasts, wolf howls and the promise of renewal with each new year's cider making, syrup boiling and summer rendezvous.