Prickett's Fort

Prickett's Fort is a location in the Toxic Valley region of Appalachia.

Background
Built on a rocky outcropping overlooking the river, Prickett's Fort is a barely historical fort, erected in the 20th century as a recreation of a refuge fort built around the homestead of Jacob Prickett in 1774, to defend European settlers from Native American raids after the Yellow Creek massacre that triggered Lord Dunmore's War.

When the local historical society decided to reconstruct Prickett's Fort, they used exaggerated references to create a much more elaborate fortified complex than the one that was actually used by Prickett or any other frontier settler. It was placed several miles away from its actual location, as a railway line was passing through the original site. As such, the fort was branded a "representational" example of frontier forts.

Riding the wave of historical interest that swept the nation before the Great War, the Society for the Preservation of Historical Recreations, together with the town of Grafton, invested heavily in the fort, maintaining the reconstruction and, in order to increase its attractiveness to tourists, creating a speculative reenactment, asking several questions: What if Prickett's Fort was actually located where it was? And it survived intact into the American Civil War, nearly a hundred years later? And what if Union and Confederate soldiers clashed in a battle to control it?

Layout
Prickett's Fort is a fairly sizable complex that is spread out among the rocks on the Appalachian slopes. Just off the road, in the western part of the area, are the parking lots together with the museum and reception cabin. The curator usually hangs around that spot. There are three main areas, including the buildings surrounding the parking lot, the gift shop and the fort itself. Up the trail from the parking is a representative blacksmith shop. Most exhibits have an interactive display that can be activated to listen to a short description of the item and area in question.

Further up the trail is the fort itself, with numerous timber structures. These include a mess hall, barracks, and numerous watchtowers with a variety of low-level loot. There are two cooking stations located inside of the fort. There are also several bundles of animal hide scattered around, a good source of leather, in addition to piles of stacked firewood that can be easily collected. A mothman can spawn to the east on the overlook. Behind the blacksmith building is an outhouse with a dead vault dweller. Down the slope from the fort lies the main gift shop, offering another stop for minor loot.

Notable loot

 * Isabel Smith-Waltz's journal - Holotape, on a barrel in the lookout tower near the blacksmith's shop.
 * Potential power armor mod - Inside the eastern cabin labeled 'Audio Tour Station 5' at the rear of the fort, on the first floor, on a wooden shelf.
 * Potential weapon mod - Inside the gift shop, in the middle aisle on the right side, on the ground.
 * Potential recipe - To the right of the cooking station behind the mess hall building inside the fort, on an unstacked wooden crate.
 * Significant number of wood piles in the fort.

Appearances
Prickett's Fort appears only in Fallout 76.

Behind the scenes
Prickett's Fort corresponds to the real-world Prickett's Fort State Park. It is closer to Monongah in real life, both flanking Fairmont in Marion County, West Virginia. The "fort" was little more than a log fence built around the house of Jacob Prickett, where families in the area would flee to if they thought they were in danger of attack from Native Americans. The location was never attacked.