Courthouse/Jail

The seat of town administration in Boomstone is the courthouse, located squarely in the middle of the settlement. The cracked paint and peeling plaster indicate that the court has seen better days since the town's founding. When Khan Enterprises acquired Boomstone, the courthouse became the headquarters for Khan's mining employees — Gomer, the mine foreman, later turned the courthouse into the center for "official justice," where he could play sheriff and judge at the miners' expense.

Hotel

If the Boomstone Hotel ever did good business in the frontier days, no one could tell by looking at the tenement that faces the town's watch tower. The hotel provides lodging for Boomstone's only permanent residents, the crew that supervises Khan's mining interests. Hot during the daytime and drafty at night, the hotel has no hired staff but is a better place for visitors to stay than the town jail. Abutting the building is a small tool shop with a gas pump out front to refuel the Bronco patrol planes, and a water trough out back that's kept filled even though there are no horses. Since becoming forelady of the Boomstone operation, Clementine Clevenger has reformed the hotel into a meeting place for her embroidery club, made up of the wives of new miners.

Mine

The true heart of Boomstone is the mine complex just outside town. Decades ago, prospectors tapped a vein of silver ore and followed it straight into the hillside, laying support beams and track as they dug. Khan Industries bought the mine years later and hired itinerant workers to operate mining machines that tunneled deeper in search of precious metal. When the silver ran out, so did Khan's interest in the Boomstone operation. However, the miners soon struck a new kind of ore — explosive urgonium — which wrecked their mining drills and led greedy mine foreman Gomer to enslave his own crew.

The entrance tunnel expands into a large chamber, the hub wherefrom a number of mine shafts branch out in pursuit of mineral deposits. Kerosene lamps illuminate the rough-hewn mine walls and the wreckage of ore excavators strewn about the mine floor — a reminder that urgonium can only be removed by hand, with extreme care. Those in charge seldom lock the iron gate at the mouth of the mine after a day's work, knowing that no one can get into or out of Boomstone except by plane.

Saloon

At the end of the boardwalk sits the "Red Eye" Saloon, the only bright spot in Boomstone. Whatever its history was in the days of cowboys and Indians, the present Red Eye captures the charm of that early, exciting time in details like the indoor lanterns and the hitching posts outside. The townsfolk have kept up the place nicely over the years; today's inhabitants use the saloon for eating, entertainment, and informal meetings about Shere Khan's mine operation.

No saloonkeeper works at the Red Eye, but a handful of locals keep the pantry filled and the dishes clean. Food stocks include hardy vegetables, preserves, fresh game, and assorted canned goods, which can be whipped up into a small banquet when important visitors are in town on business. Rustic touches include vintage bottles lining the bar shelves, a couple of paintings, and a steer's skull mounted over the cash register. For recreation, guests can take a cue and shoot some pool at a billiard table in back.

Telephone Booth

The sombrero-shaped adobe hut next to the watch tower holds the public phone, Boomstone's link to the outside world. Sheriff Gomer listed the telephone out of order for weeks following the discovery of urgonium, to prevent Ms. Clevenger from reporting to Khan Tower in Cape Suzette.