The history of Riverview is linked to the Voss family. Founded in the early 1800s by three Voss brothers, immigrants from Germany, the river valley was originally intended to be a farm. The Gold Rush showed the Voss brothers that they could make more money by turning their land into a town, and so they did. One brother became a banker, the other a mercantile, and the third remained a farmer. After all, someone had to feed the tourists.
Over the years and generations, each Voss man puts his own stamp on the city of Riverview. Bankers, lawyers, government officials. Mitchell’s uncle Nils goes into corporate real estate, with an emphasis on renovating old buildings rather than tearing them down. And Mitchell, when he begins to think beyond the band and constant touring, wants to turn Riverview into a music town like no other.
Riverview exists somewhere undefined on an American West Coast that’s probably best described as similar to Brigadoon or Atlantis — although that might be giving my imagination too much credit. The weather is gorgeous: cool nights and mornings, warm days. Rain, very little snow, but mostly sun. And being a river valley, fog that rolls in and out throughout the day and evening.
It is sized like Pittsburgh: a medium-sized city with an awful lot going for it that just isn’t exploited.
The personality of the city is its own. Riverview is a city for misfits, for a large and active gay community, for the people who flock to the city for Riverview Art Academy, like Kerri did. The city is a true American melting pot, where no one really cares about the color of your skin or what country your family came from. Ethnic food fairs usually fail, simply because in Riverview, no one draws those sorts of lines. Food is food, people are people and different is good.
It’s an ideal sort of city, but that doesn’t mean it’s without its problems. As you’ll see throughout the body of my work, Riverview’s got all the things we hate: corporate-run radio stations, chain shopping, traffic jams, not enough trees and too many highways that lead nowhere.
Still, it’s a great place to spend some time. Hopefully you’ll get to experience more of it for yourself.
