MY MODEL TOWN

Creating a model factory town:

Creating a Model Factory/Company Town: (information fluency)

Name of the town: Murrland, Manitoba, Canada

Company name: Murrland Steel Manufacturers

Resources available: Water (lakes surrounding town), trees (forest range within 3 km), iron (large amount of rock mountain range close by providing huge iron resource).

Elements of the town: . The mountain ranges provide the iron needed for the manufacturing of steel, and there are six large farms that all grow crops and raise livestock. The nearby lakes provide fresh water and food and, in the town, there is a general store, school, small shopping center, and family-owned restaurant/pub.

Population: 1765 (as of December 01, 2020)

Brief History: Murrland became a fully self-functioning factory town in 1958, with Murrland Steel employing the majority of the residents. The town is 270 km away from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and most residents have lived here for generations. The town was originally built to provide housing for the steel workers and, as the company grew in size, the number of employees also increased and families began to relocate there too. Most of the residents in Murrland have at least one family member working for the steel factory. A few families there have built up their crops and livestock to provide food for the town and they are close enough to Winnipeg to also have large food deliveries to the grocery store twice a month too. There is one school located near the grocery store and restaurant, and it houses all students in one building. The school grounds have two fields and an outdoor ice rink, along with a gym and indoor swimming pool for sports and recreation for the town.

Media Fluency:

A.) I used the “rollforfantasy town creator” to build my town and found it to fairly easy to use, once I knew what I was doing. The pieces were all right there to pick from and, after a few attempts of moving things, I was able to figure out the basics for building.

B.) I definitely used the skills I had learned about factory towns when planning the layout. I was looking to create one factory as the largest building in the town and houses making up the majority of space. There needed to be some farming land for crops and a few smaller buildings for a grocery store, school, pub.

C.) I looked at a few websites to see what the main features wer in factory/company towns. I also looked through my class notes to see what was important. The sample layout provided also helped me in designing the layout.

D.) I did look at some other possible options for town building but I like the “rollforfantasy” the best as it gave the most tips for building and was easy to use.