The first settlers along the river had fled the Miramichi fire in the late fall of 1825. Traumatized by the loss of their homes, they retreated into the placid life of the river and hid from the outside world for long generations. They might have lived that way forever if Wilhelm hadn't looked at the high ridges that surrounded them and wondered what lay on the other side.

The founder of Planeville, Wilhelm was an enigma to his peers. He went into the woods and built his village, and his descendants lived there for four generations until Planeville was abandoned.

This is the story of the river people and the village founded by their adventurous son. A capsule of our dreams and a symptom of our discontent, Planeville erupted from the wilderness. It enjoyed a brief prosperity and then disappeared when the forest loam closed over the rotting houses and abandoned machinery and graves, leaving behind only stories and misplaced stones. This story is an examination of what Planeville meant to the people who lived there, and how the village so completely disappeared from memory and the public record.