Stillwood, a Little Town in the Woods

 

Stillwood 

Stillwood is like any old town in the Cumberlands. It sits in the shadow of the Rockwell Mountains. It has one of the few volcanic cracks east of the Mississippi where tourists can look down into the Devil's Rift and see flowing magma. There is Corner Gas near the entrance, where a man named Shelton is welcoming to the region. He even offers friendly advice like: "Whatever you do, don't get off the main road until you reach township." or "If your pets or children wander in after the red eyes, I hate to say it, but they are probably not going to be found."

The only issue with Stillwood is that cellular service is rather spotty in the region. One of the highest paid jobs in the city are the technician and guides who go in to fix the various relay towers that are positioned throughout the forest and hills. Because there have been a lot of 'wildlife incidents' the town is not too picky about who they hire to accompany their techs into the woods, including passersby who might be interested in making money, or avoiding jail time if they happened to get picked up for what could be spurious means.

Notes 

• Features of Stillwood include, in addition to the Black Pines wildlife reserve that surrounds the area, the Devil's Rift, The Stillwood Hydro-Electric Dam, Rockwell Plains where you can see Farmer Jones Red Barn and its fine herd of cattle before they are pressed into the slaughter house. There is also Riverdale Asylum on one of the taller hills. It is a very nice red brick complex and even offers tours!
• Raccoons seemed to have gotten into something that makes them grow exponentially. Their sizes have ranged from a small dog to possibly a small bear. The person reported that was quite shaken up after losing her entire family for wandering.
• The town is always nervous about keeping its relay towers fixed. Despite all of the work, cell service never really improves above 'kind of spotty.' The town has been known to somewhat 'press gang' seemingly trained (or untrained) individuals to escort their techs inside. Just hand someone a gun and give them some words of encouragement.
• Town entertainment is sold through Corner Gas and it includes only VHS tapes (and rental VHS machines) several of the tapes are said to suddenly shift from the movie to scenes that are described as: unsettling, grainy, and at times informative.