Back in 1896, my brother Jonah and I were reasonably successful lawyers in San Francisco, but then the gold bug bit. We went up to theYukon and staked a few claims up around the Skunk Gulch area on the Big Toe River. The work was hard and the weather was cold. Damn cold. Being better businessmen than miners, we opened up a dry goods shop and made more selling supplies than most made finding gold. Then we each opened a law office for those disputing claims and other legal affairs. I took my earnings and started a much needed saloon. That's about the time things started to turn bad between us. Jonah, being a very competitive type, opened another saloon down the way. I added on a hotel and then so did he. I took the dry goods store and he got the assay office. No matter how bad things were, we retained equal partnership in Daisy's place, because we weren't idiots. We called our little town, Coldwater. We made a great deal of money in the following four years. There was so much gold coming in and changing hands and being stored that it was clear we needed further construction. I took a trip down to Skagway one Spring and upon returning, noticed two things in particular. Jonah had started building Coldwater's first bank, out of stone. The second thing was, well, Coldwater was sagging. I promptly went to Jonah and told him I was considering returning to San Franciso and wondered if he wanted to buy out my investments. A glassy look came over my brother's face as he mentally calculated doubling his property and all future fortunes. He offered a check, but I took gold instead. Seven million dollars worth. A few months later, I read a small story in the paper that the town of Coldwater, Alaska had disappeared overnight.
*** Made this a week ago, right before my artsy kick. 66 terrains and 9 lattices. The only non-terrains are the chimneys and boats. Lettering done in post