Amaryllis/Introduction

The long broken road ends in a forgotten patch of desert the ruins of a gold rush town. A faded sign dangles by a single length of rusty chain, it reads 'Amaryllis'. There is only one building of note left in the town an old hotel the rest are fragile hulks that creak and sway in the wind. Built sometime in the early 1800's it seemed destined to remain no more then a water stop for the stagecoaches in to Mexico then in 1858 gold was discovered. With in a year a boom hit the sleepy town as hundreds of miners poured in to work, the company who owned the claim decided to use primitive hydraulic mining. While it made the company a fortune their greed and callous indifference condemned the miners and their families to a miserable existence. The process used mercury to help extract the gold in short order the town and land had been poisoned, not that mining was ever halted they just brought in new workers and buried the old ones. The mine officially closed in 1891 but by that time the place was little more then a ghost town, the mercury poisoning had taken its toll on the people and the environment.

After more then a century of being a forgotten footnote in the history of man's greed Amaryllis is getting a new lease on life. A commune has purchased the land now that it has been certified habitable again by the state. A fresh supply of water flows to the town from the southern aquifer allowing the town to have one last chance at life. Funded by private benefactors equipment and supplies have begun to arrive in the town. contractors are laying out grids for pipelines to supply planned greenhouses and the needs of expected new residents. For now the hotel is being refurbished to house the communes new members so they can pitch in and help in the renovation of the town.