# Population of Town and a City officially in USA



## lwhitehead (May 20, 2015)

Hi I need help in creating a Port Town or City in Maine or Massachusetts, so I need to know official population for a Town or City. This Port was founded by the Welsh Whatley family. This Town or City is based on Dark Shadows, the works of HP Lovecraft, Twin Peaks, 



LW


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## Fred (May 28, 2015)

Firstly, let me apologise in advance for the long response - I thoroughly enjoyed my research into this kind of thing, so tend to waffle on a bit about it - sorry!

I created a my own fictional town (in Maine, in my case). There are many, many places to go looking for information and inspiration. I would recommend you start with a map of Maine or Massachusetts (mapquest.com, google maps, etc., anything will do) and see what's there already. Be prepared to discover that notions of 'small town' vary, though: a town like Millinocket or Dover-Foxcroft in Maine only has about 6000 inhabitants, but in these relatively isolated and very rural regions these are the biggest places for miles. Twin Peaks, if I recall from the opening credits, had a population of about 35,000. If Twin Peaks was in Maine it would be a mighty city, but in the universe of David Lynch it was a small town. In the TV show 'Sleepy Hollow' the "small town" of Sleepy Hollow is home to some 135,000 souls - but it's set in New York State, where concepts of small are perhaps far different. To put these in a UK perspective, Millinocket is about the size of Cromer in Norfolk, while Twin Peaks is the size of Rhyl, and Sleepy Hollow the size of Norwich. Everything is relative, I guess. If I were in your shoes, then, I'd see what kind of town already exists that is similar to what I want - do I need it to have certain facilities like police, hospital, college, etc.? If so, what kind of town has these things in the region?

You can go to wikipedia and look up a few of the towns that look interesting, and there you'll find information on demographics, population, industry and economy, history, etc. Wikipedia will also likely have links to each town's website, where you might get more of a feel for the place - whether it has its own police department, hospital, fire department, etc. Maine is very thinly populated, but a small town of about 6000 souls can still be large enough and with enough going on to maintain its own police department, small hospital, airfield etc. In Maine, settlements are perhaps dotted more closely together along the coast, and probably so in Massachusetts, too, and may share services within a locality - policed by the county sheriff rather than their own department, etc. You can get all this from maps, wikipedia and local government/township websites - you'll also see photos of streets, shops, housing etc. and find links to local web-based radio stations if you look around. You want to get a handle on wages, jobs, houses and apartments? Perform a job search, look at realtor.com, browse the various US State and Federal websites where census data is freely available. Google and Bing are your best friends in this kind of thing. Once you're confident you've got a handle on the kind of towns you like the look of, you can use elements of those places to build your own.

Once you've established your location, take a browse through some of the State and County websites for the region - there are some utterly beautiful spots in these States and they might lend you wonderful ideas.

I live in the UK, and in creating my fictional town, nestled in the mountains of mid-to-northern Maine, I fell in love with the region. I wish I could up sticks and move there today. Beware, though, if this happens to you. You might spend weeks on this research - it can be very, very absorbing!


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## tabasco5 (Jun 10, 2015)

In what time era does this town exist?  

If it's pre-20th century you may want to do some research regarding the type of town you have in mind.  Shouldn't take much to dig it up.  If it's modern, any number will pretty much do between 1 and 10 million.


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