Arafed man in a hat and leather outfit holding a rifle

1800s Portrait His Rugged Grace Sir Terrance ‘Iron Range’ Blackburn stands as stationed wilderness magistrate adjudicating affairs in the dense boreal forests, cold rushing streams and dispersed mining camps emerging across the isolated Gogebic County domain seeking rumored iron ore, silver and copper deposits said to lay buried somewhere in the ancient Priestly Fault volcanic bedrock folds and Precambrian era slaty quartz formations hinting at Cyclopean mineral wealth awaiting modern extraction innovation destined to fuel America’s bold Industrial Age ascendancy. But finding elusive commercial loads proving ever more ephemeral, camp populations filled with AMC front money optimists, Pittsburgh steel combine prospector talents and Cornish driller professionals dependent now entirely on Blackburn’s remote White Pine Tower trading post for sustenance and sane counsel when another test hole coughs up barren graywacke stone or a crippling cave-in crushes hope and bone among nameless drift shadows. The stalwart Blackburn dynasty origins ring with heralded English Border Reivers cavalry expertise defending against Scottish insurrection raids under cloak of darkness across Northumbria echoing Roman fort ruins adding ghostly front line psychological intimidation. Subsequent recruitment by Virgin Queen ministers tackling Catholic threats rallied generations to Ireland plantation resource confiscation initiatives before Iron Age collier exhaustion and Jacobite rebellion aftermaths forced aspiring sons overseas to colonies opportunities. Duty patrolling Michigan's upper Volunteer Mounted Militia western flank outposts bred special survival skills meeting Ojibwe warriors then guiding early 1800s French mine explorers probes until Sir Terrance negotiated provisional magistrate oversight enforcement from more established regional authorities based downstate. Now entering his second decade balancing miner rowdy law claims and tribal encampment ongoing treaty fidelity rights across