Painting of a farm scene with a pond and a house

The Duchy of Ingham Article DRAFT PUBLIC Centrally located in the kingdom’s heartland, Ingham County emerged as a trading crossroads and now serves as an agricultural hub feeding surrounding settlements. Bountiful crops and pastoral vistas characterize the land ruled from Oak Hall by Baron Linton. A checkerboard of wheat fields, vegetable plots and grazing livestock defines Ingham’s countryside – reflecting the surveyor’s grid mapped over territory ceded from indigenous tribes. Farmers across the duchy grow grains, garden crops and herd dairy cattle, exporting milk, cheese, eggs and meat via wagon or river barge. Mills operate along the meandering Grand and Red Cedar Rivers processing flour, cider and lumber. At the confluence of both waterways lies the flourishing village of Lansing, where trappers once gathered at the season’s end to trade furs. Now year-round merchants export duchy grains and produce downstream while providing essential goods to pioneer families headed inland. Around Lansing’s trade economy grow carriage shops, smithies, lively taverns and fine cottages like the Italianate-styled Oak Hall. Though lacking great wealth, Ingham sustains the kingdom’s heartland – feeding the strategic stronghold at Detroit and pioneers pushing development westward into Michigan’s interior. Both Baron Linton and his yeoman citizens take pride in this role.