For my last Deadlands game I detailed the fictional town of Melody Colorado. I played around with some of the details, but it partially replaces Walsenburg Colorado, the county seat of Huerfano County. I choose Huerfano Co., despite never having been there, because it was along a cattle trail, had good mining and farming, and was close to Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. It was also one of the original 17 counties of Colorado which I felt increased my chances of finding historical information online.

I was able to get some great history about Huerfano county that inspired and informed my game. For example both “The History of the Georgia Colony” and “Hispanic Heritage in Huerfano County, Colorado” from this excellent page: Huerfano County Resources.

Here’s what I ended up with:
A large map of Melody - 1.9 Mb jpeg, 3400px × 4400px
A players map of Melody - 580 kb PDF
Melody People and Places.

My point for all of this is that you should always check to actual history of the region your game is set in, you never know what cool stories you’ll turn up. And, if nothing else, you’ll get some good local flavor.