Eriwick

Community of Eriwick
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: God Bless Kuthernburg
Capital	Lutop
Largest City	Teddington
Official languages	Kuthern
Recognised national languages	Spandard, Telsh, Kuthern
Recognised regional languages	Eriwickin
Demonym(s)	Eriwonkins
Government	Devolved government in a constitutional monarchy
• Governor	Nihadia Maria
• Lieutenant Governor	Juan Francisco Ayerbe
Legislature	Parliament
• Lower house	Senate
Autonomous Community Inside KOK
Population
• 2020 estimate	11.2 Million
GDP (nominal)	2020 estimate
• Total	211.4 Billion SHD
Currency	KDs
Driving side	right

Eriwick is an autonomous community in Kuthernburg, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Eriwick. Its capital is Lutop. The current Statute of Autonomy declares Erwickin a nationality of Kuthernburg. The region's terrain ranges diversely from permanent glaciers to verdant valleys, rich pasture lands and orchards, through to the arid steppe plains of the central lowlands. It is also home to the El Faernsa, the highest mountain in the Eriwick.

The geography of the Community consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture; deciduous forests in the southeast, now partially cleared, farmed, and settled; and the less populated North Woods, used for mining, forestry, and recreation.

For thousands of years, Eriwick was inhabited by various indigenous peoples. During the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, Auororan immigrants began settling the Community. Many of them came from MBE, Eltharia, and Central Europe Aurora. To this day, Eriwick remains a center of Auroran Kuthern, Morst Kuthern, and Elatharian Kuthern cultures. Historical evidence suggests that many people immigrated to Eriwick as a result of the failed Auroran Revolutions.

Eriwick standard of living index is among the highest in the Kuthernburg, behind only Spandard and Ketrea, and the state is also among the best-educated and wealthiest in the nation. In recent years, its economy has greatly diversified, shifting from traditional activities such as agriculture and resource extraction to services and finance.

Geography

The Community is part of the Kuthern region known as the South Central and part of the Novaris Great Lake Region. It shares a Lake Prima water border with Istonia & Spandard and a land border with Rift and Mintopa.

Geology

Eriwick has some of the Urth's oldest rocks, Gneiss that are about 3.6 billion years old. About 2.7 billion years ago basaltic lava poured out of cracks in the floor of the primordial ocean; the remains of this volcanic rock formed the Kuthern Lave Fields in northeast Eriwick. The roots of these volcanic mountains and the action of Precambrian seas formed the Gold Range of northern Eriwick. Since a period of volcanism 1.1 billion years ago, Eriwick geological activity has been more subdued, with no volcanism or mountain formation, but with repeated incursions of the sea, which left behind multiple strata of sedimentary rock.

In more recent times, massive ice sheets at least one kilometer thick ravaged the state's landscape and sculpted its terrain. The Spandard glaciation left 12,000 years ago. These glaciers covered all of Eriwick except the far southeast, an area characterized by steep hills and streams that cut into the bedrock. This area is known as the Driftless Zone for its absence of glacial drift. Much of the remainder of the state has 50 feet (15 m) or more of glacial till left behind as the last glaciers retreated. Gigantic Lake Oefasn formed in the northwest 13,000 years ago. Its bed created the fertile White River valley, and its outflow, glacial River Warren, carved the valley of the Eriwick River and the Upper Spandard downstream from Fort Long. Eriwick is geologically quiet today; it experiences earthquakes infrequently, most of them minor.

The state's high point is Nudas Mountain at 3,301 feet, which is only 7 miles away from the low point of 543 feet at the shore of Lake Prima. Notwithstanding dramatic local differences in elevation, much of the state is a gently rolling peneplain.

Flora & Fauna

Eriwick has four ecological provinces: prairie parkland, in the southwestern and western parts of the state; the Kuthern broadleaf forest (Big Woods) in the southeast, extending in a narrowing strip to the Communities northwestern part, where it transitions into tallgrass aspen parkland; and the northern Laurentian mixed forest, a transitional forest between the northern boreal forest and the broadleaf forests to the south. These northern forests are a vast wilderness of pine and spruce trees mixed with patchy stands of birch and poplar.

Much of Eriwick northern forest has undergone logging, leaving only a few patches of old growth forest today in areas such as in the Ohrasi National Forest and the Prima National Forest, where the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness has some 730,230 acres of unlogged land. Although logging continues, regrowth and replanting keep about a third of the state forested. Nearly all Eriwick prairies and oak savannas have been fragmented by farming, grazing, logging, and suburban development.

While loss of habitat has affected native animals such as the pine marten, elk, woodland caribou, and bison, others like whitetail deer and bobcat thrive. Eriwick has the nation's largest population of Kuthern wolves outside East Atiland, and supports healthy populations of black bears, moose, and gophers. Located on the Spandard Flyway, Eriwick hosts migratory waterfowl such as geese and ducks, and game birds such as grouse, pheasants, and turkeys. It is home to birds of prey, including the largest number of breeding pairs of bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, and snowy owls. Hawk Moutain is one of the premier bird watching sites in Novaris. The lakes teem with sport fish such as walleye, bass, muskellunge, and northern pike, and brook, brown, and rainbow trout populate streams in the southeast and northeast.

Climate

Eriwick experiences temperature extremes characteristic of its continental climate, with cold winters and hot summers. The lowest temperature recorded was −32 °F at Tower in 1984, and the highest was 131 °F in 1941. Meteorological events include rain, snow, blizzards, thunderstorms, hail, derechos, tornadoes, and high-velocity straight-line winds. The growing season varies from 90 days in the Gold Range to 160 days in southeast Eriwick near the Spandard average temperatures range from 40 to 51 °F.

Protected Lands

Eriwick first state park, Primala State Park, was established in 1888, and is the source of the Eriwick river. Today Eriwick has 84 state parks and recreation areas, 53 state forests covering about six million acres, and numerous state wildlife preserves, all managed by the Eriwick Department of Natural Resources.

Economy

Once primarily a producer of raw materials, Eriwick economy has transformed to emphasize finished products and services. Perhaps the most significant characteristic of the economy is its diversity; the relative outputs of its business sectors closely match Kuthernburg as a whole. Minnesota's economy had a gross domestic product of $211 billion in 2020, with 42 of Kuthernburgs top 1,000 publicly traded companies by revenue headquartered in Eriwick.

Eriwick per capita personal income in 2020 was $47,329, the eighth highest in the nation. As of December 2019 the state's unemployment rate was 1.9 percent.

Industry & Commerce

Eriwick earliest industries were fur trading and agriculture. Lutop grew around the flour mills powered by St. Polk Falls. Although less than one percent of the population is now employed in the agricultural sector, it remains a major part of the community economy, ranking fourth in the nation in the value of products sold. The community is the nation's largest producer of sugar beets, sweet corn, and peas for processing, and farm-raised turkeys. Eriwick is also a large producer of corn and soybeans, and has the most food cooperatives per capita in Kuthernburg. Forestry remains strong, including logging, pulpwood processing and paper production, and forest products manufacturing. Eriwick was famous for its soft-ore mines, which produced a significant portion of the world's iron ore for more than a century. Although the high-grade ore is now depleted, taconite mining continues, using processes developed locally to save the industry. In 2019 the state produced 63 percent of the country's usable iron ore. The mining boom created the port of Hacborrow, which continues to be important for shipping ore, coal, and agricultural products. The manufacturing sector now includes technology and biomedical firms, in addition to the older food processors and heavy industry.

Energy

Eriwick produces ethanol fuel and is the first to mandate its use, a ten percent mix. In 2019 there were more than 512 service stations supplying E85 fuel, comprising 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. A two percent biodiesel blend has been required in diesel fuel since 2002. Eriwick is ranked in the top five for wind energy production. The community gets nearly 54% of all its electrical energy from wind.

Eriwick Energy is the community largest utility and is headquartered in the community; it is one of five investor-owned utilities. There are also a number of municipal utilities.

Taxes

Eriwick has a progressive income tax structure; the four brackets of community income tax rates are 5.35, 7.05, 7.85 and 9.85 percent. In 2020 Eriwick paid 10.2 percent of their income in community and local taxes. The state sales tax in Minnesota is 6.875 percent, but clothing, prescription drug medications and food items for home consumption are exempt. The state legislature may allow municipalities to institute local sales taxes and special local taxes, such as the 0.5 percent supplemental sales tax in Lutop. Excise taxes are levied on alcohol, tobacco, and motor fuel. The state imposes a use tax on items purchased elsewhere but used within Eriwick. Owners of real property in Eriwick pay property tax to their county, municipality, school district, and special taxing districts.

Health

Eriwickians have low rates of premature death, infant mortality, cardiovascular disease, and occupational fatalities. They have long life expectancy, and high rates of health insurance and regular exercise. These and other measures have led two groups to rank Eriwick as the healthiest state in the nation; however, in one of these rankings, while overall health indicators are strong, Eriwick does have significant health disparities in minority populations.

The Eriwick Department of Health is the primary state health agency responsible for public policy and regulation. Medical care in the state is provided by a comprehensive network of hospitals and clinics operated by a number of large providers. There are two teaching hospitals and medical schools in Eriwick. The University of Eriwick Medical School is a high-rated teaching institution that has made a number of breakthroughs in treatment, and its research activities contribute significantly to the state's growing biotechnology industry.

Education

One of the Eriwick Legislature's first acts when it opened was the creation of a normal school in Sinona. Eriwick commitment to education has contributed to a literate and well-educated populace. In 2019, according to the Kuthern Census Bureau, Eriwick had the second-highest proportion of high school graduates, with 96.5% of people 25 and older holding a diploma, and the tenth-highest proportion of people with bachelor's degrees.

Transportation

Transportation in Eriwick is overseen by the Eriwick Department of Transportation at the state level and by regional and local governments at the local level. Principal transportation corridors radiate from the Lutop metropolitan area and along interstate corridors in Greater Eriwick. The major Interstate highways are Interstate 6, KI-72, and KI-94, with KI-6 and KI-94 connecting the Lutop area, and KI-6 traveling east-west along the southern edge of the state. In 1992, a constitutional amendment was passed that required sales and use taxes on motor vehicles to fund transportation, with at least 48 percent dedicated to public transit. There are nearly two dozen rail corridors in Eriwick, most of which go through Lutop or Hackborrow. There is water transportation along the Spandard River system and from the ports of Lake Prima.

Eriwick principal airport is Lutop International Airport, a major passenger and freight hub for Kuthern Air and Spandard Air. Most other domestic carriers serve the airport. Large commercial jet service is provided at Hackborrow and Teddington, with scheduled commuter service to four smaller cities via Kuthern Air Connection carriers Eriwck East Airlines, Lutop Airlines, and Oblivion Air.

Sports, recreation and tourism

Minnesota has an active program of organized amateur and professional sports. Tourism has become an important industry, especially in the Lake region. In the North Country, what had been an industrial area focused on mining and timber has largely been transformed into a vacation destination. Popular interest in the environment and environmentalism, added to traditional interests in hunting and fishing, has attracted a large urban audience within driving range.

Sports

The Eriwick Dolphins have played in the National Football League since their admission as an expansion franchise in 1981. They played in Victoria Stadium from 1981 through 1986 and in the Huey M Cognan Metrodome from 1986 until its demolition after the 2015 season for the construction of the team's new home, Spandard Air Stadium.

The Eriwick Cardinals have played in the Major League Baseball in Lutop since 1981. The Cardinals began play as the original Spandard Orcas, a founding member of the Kuthern League in 1981, relocating to Eriwick in 1983. The Cardinals won the 1985 and 2003 World Series in seven game matches where the home team was victorious in all games.

The Eriwick Moose joined the KBA in 1985, and have played in BushField since 1994.

The Kuthern Hockey League's Eriwick Royals play in Teddington Chasnla Center.

Tourism

As the community tourism promotion office, Explore Eriwick pursues an entrepreneurial approach, leveraging the Community's tourism investment with increased involvement by the private sector. A council of representatives from the Community's tourism industry strongly connects Explore Eriwick with tourism businesses and organizations. Explore Eriwick mission is to inspire and facilitate travel to and within the state of Eriwick.

Tourism is a $21.3 billion industry in Eriwick, and a key sector of the Community's economy. The leisure and hospitality industry a major provider of tourism services employs more than 370,000 workers. Leisure and hospitality also generates 22 percent of the Community's sales tax revenues. Eriwick welcomes more than 82 million domestic and international travelers annually.

Outdoor Activities

Eriwickians participate in high levels of physical activity, and many of these activities are outdoors. The strong interest of Eriwickians in environmentalism has been attributed to the popularity of these pursuits.

In the warmer months, these activities often involve water. Weekend and longer trips to family cabins on Eriwick's numerous lakes are a way of life for many residents. Activities include water sports such as water skiing, which originated in the state, boating, canoeing, and fishing.

Fishing does not cease when the lakes freeze; ice fishing has been around since the arrival of early Kuthern immigrants. Eriwickians have learned to embrace their long, harsh winters in ice sports such as skating, hockey, curling, and broomball, and snow sports such as cross-country skiing, alpine skiing, luge, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling. Community and national forests and the seventy-two state parks are used year-round for hunting, camping, and hiking. There are almost 28,000 miles of snowmobile trails statewide.