Help! Need someone who knows more about North American geography than I do!

[sparkindarkness]

As mentioned here: http://sparkindarkness.livejournal.com/204537.html I am running a werewolf game. Because I prefer to stick mostly to game canon and because the game requires the interaction of many many tribes it is to be set in the Americas (European werewolf tribes tend to have their own established territory and multi-tribal septs are rare or limited to maybe 3 tribes. It‘s also easier to shoot them there).

The things is I don't know exactly where to situate it. I want to keep it as close to the real world as possible (makes for less invention and more interesting research - in my last campaign they went Yuma, Arizona to Miami to Townsville, Queensland and I had lots of fun researching them all) but I am willing to tweak things (turn a moderate city into a NYC sized metropolis, for example). But I need somewhere to start.

So, what do I need?

A city moderately close to forested wilderness “close” can be “within 2-3 days solid travel” but more than a week would be pushing it. The wilderness has to be predominantly woodland.

Temperate/cold climate Snows in winter. Has pine trees. That kind of thing. No deserts, palm trees, calypso dancers.

Not somewhere already heavily established in White Wolf’s canon I like the canon, I use it a lot and don’t want to clash with it too badly since I may want to use it. So NOT: NYC, New York State, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago

A Camarilla City So nowhere that is established as Sabbat - so NOT Toronto (rest of Canada’s fine, I never bought the idea of all of Canada being a Sabbat holding - it made NO sense) Detroit, Miami, Mexico

Bonus points
Not essentials but they’d be nice bonuses if possible:

Native wolf population
Wilderness is actually a National Park or similarly legally protected
The city has a history (not necessarily current presence) of organised crime ties


All suggestions gratefully appreciated!


(ETA: I'm going to do brief research on each suggestion and probably post another post on detailed pros and cons of each :))

Comments

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Maryville, Tennessee, is 25 miles from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which has been reintroducing the native red wolf. The park does have pine trees, along with hemlock, red spruce and yellow buckeye among others (according to one account, there are more species of trees in the Park than in all of Northern Europe). It used to snow regularly in winter, but hasn't much lately.

I don't know about organizes crime as such, but we do have a long history of moonshiners and bootleggers (cf. "Thunder Road," which references several locations in nearby Knoxville).

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I can see some huge benefits historically to here - the history of the city nicely reflects the European Silver Fangs seizing the caern from the Native American Croatan. The abolitionist movement also nicely reflects the Child of Gaia presence

I think I'd have to beef up the population considerably, since it is small (I'd also have to mix up the diversity a fair whack to fit the story, but I've done this and the like to other cities. My main worry is the urban werewolves of my story would be attracted by business or technology),

It is extremely close to a national park. With trees :) The history of the place is also wonderful for the Sept (centre of the abolitionist movement, former fort against Native American attacks)

I've looked at some pictures though and that's some beautiful forrested terrain. Truly stunning

Ah that's good - we have a semi-organised crime ring which i can say had hidden underpinning

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

Chattanooga.

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

Their roads are perfect and have been since they were built. *sobs* They are perfectly flat and made from some stone that gives them a reddish color. They have been around long enough that they've had to make minor patches in some areas but there are still miles of perfect road.

Ours get destroyed by winter to the point they're constantly being repaired.

Then there are the accents and the food....

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

If you need technology, Oak Ridge is only about 30 miles away. And, in fact, Oak Ridge might work just as well as Maryville.