Van Buren/Locations

A list of locations planned for Van Buren.

Ballistic Orbital Missile Base
Abbreviated B.O.M.B.-001 is a large space station capable of firing twenty-four nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. While it is currently staffed with eight individuals, it is capable of housing six people long term. The layout for B.O.M.B.-001 shows areas designated for living, recreation, medical treatment, and a separate area for the station's true purpose; a nuclear missile control and launch center.

B.O.M.B. Command Center
The orbital command sector of B.O.M.B.-001.

Blackfoot Village
A location in the Grand Canyon, owned by the Blackfoot Tribe. The gate flanks are guarded from the inside. There are spots along the fence where it's possible to shoot through but not walk through (the hole is too small for a character to pass, but not so small that it blocks line of sight), and these spots are manned by tribes folk with some of their limited number of pipe rifles.

Bloomfield Space Center
An old Air Force base with two working space shuttles and houses a gang called the Rusty Hooks, whose hideout is in the shuttle launch pad. By the time the Prisoner arrives at Bloomfield, Dr. Victor Presper and members of the NCR have already taken the other space rocket to B.O.M.B.-001.

Boulder Dome
A massive scientific research facility overshadowing the city of Boulder in 2253. It was built as a structure specifically designed to withstand a direct nuclear attack. Surrounding the structure are the blasted remains of the city of Boulder, with what's left of it being hazardously contaminated with radiation and toxic waste.

Boulder Dome Tunnels
The 4th sub-level of the Boulder Dome. This area of the dome is not accessible to the Prisoner until they are at least to part 2 of the game. This level is toxic and irradiated. The only way to survive here is by wearing an environmental suit like the members of the infected scientist team are wearing.

Burham Springs
In 2039, Prometheus Coal, a division of Poseidon Energy, opened the Eagle's Rock mine complex in central Utah. A small mining town named Eagle Rock would open sometime later. The mine would prove to be quite dangerous and inefficient, eventually leading to the company selling the site to the United States government almost three decades later. The government turns the mine into a radioactive-waste dumping ground, manned by AGRICOLA mining robots. The Enclave also promoted the construction of a small bunker in the mine, for personal use in the event of a war.

Circle Junction
Where the Iron Rivers tribe lives, who are said to have come from someplace to the west many years ago, and to have once been part of another tribe but have become ostracized. They survived many hardships before finally coming to the "Great Circle," known as Circle Junction to outsiders, where they have lived ever since. The Iron Rivers tribe was led to Circle Junction, following the path of a great roaring machine that had disappeared.

Denver
Dog City or Dog Town is what is left of Denver, Colorado after the Great War, named for packs of dog that roam the streets. Salvager camps are the only civilization present. One camp is located in the skyscraper ruins, above the threat of dogs below.

Fort Abandon
Trig would have asked the player character to acquire capacitors from the location.

Grand Canyon
A location in the former United States. Santiago describes the location as, "hot and radioactive" but containing valuable old equipment that can be salvaged. He offers information about the canyon and surroundings, including the fact that he and his crew had heard stories of a large object crashing into the western part of the canyon.

Hangdog Village
These guys are all about dogs, utilizing them as pets, food, and guards. The Hangdogs are slavers and scavengers and are often in league with Hecate. They have a mixed reputation across the wasteland. Neither known for being particularly brutal or kind, the Hangdogs mostly keep to themselves, living in northeastern Colorado, near Denver – or, as NCR calls it, “Dog Town.” The Hangdogs run with packs of dogs that have been taken from the hordes that reportedly infest the area.

Hoover Dam
A concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the former US states of Arizona and Nevada.

Jericho
A town located near the shore of the Great Salt Lake. It was once the Jericho water plant and part of New Canaan, but it was destroyed seven years ago by rioting refugees from the war in the west. Jericho is a rough frontier town, but Sheriff O'Connor keeps a firm grasp on the town.

MacArthur Army Base
In a random encounter around New Canaan, the player character will find a squad of troopers that will approach them, asking for directions to the MacArthur Army Base. If the player character is hostile or "weird" the troopers will open fire on them.

Maxson bunker
A pre-War fallout shelter built by a senator for his family and himself. The war caught him unaware, and the bunker was never actually used for its intended purpose. All but forgotten, the bunker location was passed down as a family secret from one generation to the next. Eventually, a family member passed the secret on to Roger Maxson, who claimed it for the Brotherhood of Steel.

Mesa Verde
Rocky canyons surrounding the base of the mesa. At a junction of several canyons, including the one which leads to the village, is a Viper encampment. They stop anyone who's trying to go to or come from the Cipher village.

Moletown
A small town outside of the Tibbets Facility where a crazy survivalist had trapped all of the buildings and dug out a series of tunnels beneath the town to try and wipe out anyone or anything that tries to crawl in there.

New Canaan
The town was founded by Prophet Judah Black in 2235, among the ruins of the once great city of Ogden. The settlers were survivors from New Jerusalem, a previous Mormon settlement established in Salt Lake City, the destroyed pre-War capital. Refugees of the Brotherhood War had stormed the town after false rumors that the inhabitants were hoarding food circulated. Out of the shattered glass and broken steel of SLC, Black led his people north, to Ogden. The community suffered as they rebuilt, but prevailed, despite numbering barely a hundred. After Judah Black's death in 2245, the community's leadership passed to Jeremiah Rigdon, who claimed to have experienced visions from God in 2247. Though many believed in him, some distrusted him and left.

New Jerusalem
Most of Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah, was destroyed during the Great War in 2077. When Vault 70 opened in 2190, the residents used their three Garden of Eden Creation Kits to found the city.

Nursery
The Nursery is located southwest of Denver, Colorado near the Black Canyon National Park. The rim of the canyon is approximately a mile above sea level and the canyon itself is approximately half a mile deep. This area was chosen as the home for the Nursery because of its isolated location.

Ouroboros
A village in Western Utah. It is where Hecate, the mad tribal goddess resides, as well as the Vipers, a group of raiders from the west who serve her. Jordan Dae, the captain of Ouroboros' elite city guard, also resides here.

Reservation
The Reservation was a top secret military and nuclear research facility before the bombs dropped. It was tasked with developing and building the nuclear missiles that went into the B.O.M.B. satellites. The Reservation was nestled deep in the rocky hills of northern New Mexico where the U.S. government felt that no enemy satellites or spies would ever think to look.

Robot City
A mysterious place to the east of Denver, governed by machine intelligence. The robots are attempting to find ODYSSEUS, the Tibbets AI. They are hoping to use ODYSSEUS to correct the divide that has occurred within its system - and return the AI to its imprisonment, the intended place as their slave.

Tibbets Prison
United States Penitentiary Tibbets, nicknamed the "Big Top" due to its distinctive rotunda dome, is a cold, sterile, steel-walled automated prison facility in what used to be known as Arizona, constructed before the Great War. It was designed to hold and protect some of the world's most dangerous criminals before the war. The facility is governed by the split-personality machine intelligence within the prison, ODYSSEUS.

Twin Mothers Village
The Twin Mothers are very friendly and trusting people. Upon meeting the player character they will ask them if they come in peace. If the player character agrees that they have, they will accept them and allow them free run of the village. The tribe is run by two chiefs. A woman is chosen to govern the tribe in its daily affairs.

Behind the scenes

 * The Denver design document was written by Sean K. Reynolds.
 * The design of the Big Empty is largely taken from the development dedicated to Boulder Dome.
 * Circle Junction was part of Chris Avellone's role-playing campaign.
 * According to the location's design document for Van Buren, the design for this town was inspired by The Mission and The Last Temptation of Christ, as well as the opening of The Gunslinger.