Blame this.
Topeka Wireless Interplanetary Telegraphy Company
Established 1921
This company does not exist in electronic record, so don’t bother looking it up. The thing is, though: it should: the state of Kansas has older companies in its online database. However, for some reason, the only files are all in paper form and stuck in an archive somewhere. Very likely misfiled, too.
Flipping through the file itself, it’s not immediately obvious as to why this company would be of interest (besides the name, which is arguably just quirky). It was incorporated in 1921, with a “R. M. Wyvyan” listed as the President of the company, and existed until at least 1937 (the last annual report in the file). Its paperwork was handled by a Topekan law firm (long since out of business) and while there are records of a “R. M. Wyvyan” out there online they’re very sparse. The man was apparently one of Marconi’s assistants who did radio tower work in North America; he died in the mid 1940s, essentially and apparently of old age. So far, not much to work with.
There are, however, land parcels mentioned in the file – part of the annual tax records – and if marked on a map of Kansas they’re revealed to be five ten-acre tracts in the middle of nowhere, all equidistant from each other. The company that owns all five (the Kansas Agricultural Land Trust) does still exist, and gives the bare legal minimum of information about it. A physical investigation of the sites will reveal that they are, indeed, located in determinedly rural areas. Rural areas with excellent, regularly-maintained roads; remarkably well-funded county and local police; and excellent cell phone coverage. Each site itself is surprisingly difficult to casually get into, thanks to sturdy and non-debilitated chain link fences; but a determined researcher will discover that in the center of each tract is what looks to be an amateur observatory built out of scrap 1920s and 30s industrial parts. Assuming that the visitors make it to more sites, they will be able to work out that the observatories all seem to be ‘looking’ at the same spot in the sky.
Assuming, again, that the researchers make it that far. At some point during all of this, apparently somebody will notice the sudden interest in the Topeka Wireless Interplanetary Telegraphy Company. When that happens, the researchers – and the researchers’ bosses – will start getting calls from people up higher in the relevant bureaucracy, asking nicely just what the interest is in this long-dissolved company. And what happens after that? Well, depends on the campaign, surely?
I finally broke down and made an account so I could start commenting on these posts…
As someone who has lived rurally, and lives in Kansas to boot, I’d say one thing that needs changed in this nugget is the size of the property. 10 acres is *tiny*, particularly in a rural environment. Many/most rural regions in the Midwest are parceled into 640 acre sections (one square mile). Carving 10 acres out of one of those would be odd – it happens, especially these days with center-pivot irrigation, but in those cases, the acreage would be on one of the corners of the section (at an intersection). Anyone would see the observatory simply by driving by, and it’d be hard to conceal with trees that close to the road.
OTOH, if the parcels were entire sections, then the observatory can be placed near the center, with some trees around it, and to a casual observer it’d look no different than a farmhouse set off from the road. And the rest of the section could be used for cattle grazing or crop growing, so there wouldn’t be questions about why a section of good land was being left fallow.
No, this is great information. I was staring at the size as it was: I was originally thinking *one* acre, and decided that that was way too small. I will undoubtedly change it to one square mile, for exactly the reasons that you point out. 🙂
Oh, and welcome to the site.
Thanks. Long-time lurker (from your evil giraffe days). I like the content better now; much more inspirational. I keep sharing these gaming nuggets with my wife, and I am still trying to put together a campaign that will be interesting for me that I can put my son and his friends through.
Derp — I meant “your pre-‘no longer blogs about politics’ days”, not “evil giraffe days”. That’s what I get for drive-by commenting.
It does not cost very much to establish a corporation, get a seal, and so on.
If you really want to establish the Lane Intra-Galactic Expediting Service, Inc. you can.
Why not? One of the prosecutors in Wayne County, Michigan is Luke Skywalker. Or he may have retired. It has been about 15 years since I worked in the criminal courts there.