I have no idea what tomorrow may hold. We can guess, anticipate, play the odds, but until tomorrow gets here, we don't know. But we can guess, anticipate and play the odds and prepare as we are able for the most likely possibilities.
The Citadel project can only be so large. The first prudent (significant) structure would be the rhetorical Keep, the final home for III Arms. Going further, to enclose even a mile of property with a useful Curtain Wall will be an expensive, daunting task. How many tons of earth will have to be moved to sculpt the land?
Assuming a mile of space inside the walls, no more than 3,000 households would be prudent, and McMansions would not be possible. There must be enough room to bring people in who choose to live outside the walls during times of danger, but how many, and for how long, and at what comfort level? At some point the gates simply need to be closed, and good people will be left on the outside, looking in. There simply is not enough room or resources to take everyone who will wish to be in safety.
To build a modern walled town poses real challenges not faced by those before us. Cars, for one. Modern community planning and modern American expectations bump heads with a modern walled town that can be a genuine refuge in dangerous times. One gate is the easiest to defend, and one gate is guaranteed to annoy people once in a while as a traffic bottleneck. A fair trade? That will be for each individual to decide. Personally, the concept of a walled town eliminates the need to go beyond the walls very often. If everything I need is within a mile-wide space, why would I venture out except for the occasional trip or vacation?
While a mile of open space is small, it is equally large. One square mile is 640 acres. There is no reason a first class indoor shooting range can't be inside the walls. Grocery, hair, fashion, exercise, parks, woods, ATV dealership, all of our needs, and many of our wants. But if you want to own a 20 acre parcel, that won't work inside the walls. Will III Arms get lucky and have the ability to own more property than just 640 acres? Perhaps. Large tracts of land in Idaho can be purchased for (relatively) modest prices. But consider the cost of every linear foot of wall, and you can see that the ability to enclose a larger space becomes exponentially more difficult.
Regardless of how things evolve, I am pleased we seem to have found a path that many of us find prudent. For many of us the concept holds the first real glimmers of hope we've been able to muster in quite a while. Wherever you see your place on this path we have chosen, which includes III Arms and Idaho and eventually the Citadel, I have appreciated the support you have offered. Many have offered skills. Others who were able offered cash. Others have offered moral support. It all matters.
I will offer this one bit of advice to anyone who is looking at the potential of moving to Idaho, connected in any manner with this project: Do not wait too long to decide your path. Obviously, no one is packing yet, but the response we have received simply from within the small online community of III Patriots who visit this site is sufficient for me to be certain that if we have the ability to include even as many as 3,000 households inside the walls, they will be claimed quickly. Yes, there has been that level of support. And we have never once yet mentioned the concept beyond this blog. What do you think will happen when we begin marketing nationally?
I can already tell you that III Arms will be a success from a business perspective. We have serious people who are already putting real work into III Arms, from marketing to production, and not one person is pulling a salary. (We have not even deposited the first check, yet). We are all paying our bills with our day jobs. You simply can't hire that kind of loyalty and motivation, as every businessman knows. More than 40 Patriots devoted their cash to help launch the company. People are involved because we believe. We are all doing our part to ensure III Arms launches and catches fire among the patriotic Americans still in our country.
Remember that the primary purpose of III Arms is to give Patriots an industry that will sustain the launch of our small town. From there, Free Enterprise will have to do the rest and determine our growth rate and population. But the gears are in motion, and this project will continue to evolve rapidly.
So, consider your place, Patriots. Here's a site about Northern Idaho.
Kerodin
III
