Ridgecrest

Pre-War
Ridgecrest began as a farming community in California called Crumville in 1912, honoring two local dairymen James and Robert Crum. At some point the town was renamed to Ridgecrest, and grew exponentially in the 1940s and 1950s. A post office had been established in 1941, but the town had still not been incorporated by the outbreak of World War III. By the time of the war, about 5,100 people lived in Ridgecrest.

Post-War
Ridgecrest was largely unaffected by the war. Its residents were able to return to the surface relatively earlier than most people in other areas of the world. The nuclear winter was also easier on them than most. Once they emerged, it was mostly business as usual. The community continued to farm. The greatest of their problems was keeping a steady supply of water, so scavengers would have to go to nearby cities for water. The nearby military installation contained weapons for the community to use. Ridgecrest continued to grow, and water would eventually become less of a problem.

The Calvert Family
In 1974, Peter Calvert I met with a water scavenger from Ridgecrest. He moved his family to the town to try and start a simpler life. Calvert became close to the town's mayor, George Smith. When Smith died in 1976, Peter Calvert I became the town's next mayor. Calvert wanted Ridgecrest to expand. He built the city up and began to work on getting other communities organized in the area. He founded what he called the Versago Republic. In 1977, he went back to settle the city of Bakersfield, which sparked a rivalry with the Tilden Republic to the west, leading to rapid re-colonization in the San Joaquin Valley.