New Canaan

New Canaan was a Mormon town built in the ruins of Ogden, Utah.

Background
The town of New Canaan was founded in a ruined section of Ogden, Utah, by the Prophet Judah Black in 2235. The settlers of the town came from the ruins of New Jerusalem in Salt Lake City, the ruined utopia of pre-war Mormon optimism. Some great catastrophe befell New Jerusalem, primarily due to the insistence of its citizens on not having dealings with the outside world.

Out of the shattered glass and broken steel of New Jerusalem, Judah led the survivors north. The town they established was far from ideal. They suffered greatly in their efforts to rebuild. The original population of the community was roughly one hundred. In 2253, only a few more than fifty citizens actually live in New Canaan. Judah Black died in 2245. Two years later, Jeremiah Rigdon claimed to have visions from God. Most of the Canaanites believed in Jeremiah, but others disputed his revelations, and left.

In 2253, dozens of war refugees, fleeing the NCR-BoS conflict, have wandered into New Canaan. Not wanting to repeat the mistakes of New Jerusalem, Jeremiah Rigdon has allowed them to enter, but was having difficulty keeping the peace.

By 2281, New Canaan was a prosperous town and a powerful trading influence in the southwest, dominating the trade routes north of New Vegas and imposing heavy taxes on exterior caravan companies wishing to trade, such as the Crimson Caravan, making NCR expansion in the area difficult.

Three months after the First Battle of Hoover Dam, the New Canaanites welcomed the fallen Joshua Graham back into their flock, angering Caesar, who wished to erase Graham from history. To that end, Caesar had the White Legs, a tribe petitioning to be absorbed into the Legion, attack New Canaan with the objective of wiping out the New Canaanites. The city was destroyed, and the earth was salted so that nothing could grow there ever again.

Roughly thirty Mormons survived the sacking, including Graham and Daniel. The survivors regrouped along the Colorado River, with the attitude that cities are just stone and mortar, and that a city's heart is its people, suggesting that the Mormons will attempt to rebuild elsewhere.

Layout
The outskirts do not border on the Great Salt Lake, and consist primarily of ruined buildings occupied by squatters and drifters (sort of like the west end of Klamath in Fallout 2). The main problem in this area is the presence of NCR refugees. Some of them are bad seeds, and dislike the strict rules and regulations of the town. A few of them even stand outside of the crude town walls themselves, having been exiled from the community for immoral behavior. This is actually very troublesome, as Jeremiah Maxwell only distributes free water to people living inside the town itself. The primary features of this map are: the eastern wall and gate, the squatter houses, the guard house, the general store, and the slaughterhouse.

Every day, Jeremiah and several brave Mormons journey out to have supper with the refugees on the exterior. Once a person has been expelled, the only way they are allowed back into Canaan is by submitting to the Mormon baptismal rite.

The town borders on the Great Salt Lake. It is surrounded by concrete and makeshift walls. The Canaanites keep most of their houses and businesses here. The town section is cleaner than the outskirts section, and relatively well built considering an atomic firestorm once swept through the area. In addition to the modest homes and farms of the Canaanites, the main features of the town are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the New Canaan sheriff's office/jail, and the pump house. Jeremiah Rigdon and two priests generally reside at the church, though all three have homes of their own. One of the most important aspects of the New Canaan community is its tolerance. Four ghouls (one glowing) and one super mutant mark the extremes of a very mixed community.

Ogden's Union Station sits unused. If the player gets the trains up and working, he or she can take the train here pretty rapidly. A few people live near the train tracks, including most of the super mutant and ghoul members of the Mormon faith. It's a little messier than the town itself, but not as bad as the outskirts.

Buildings

 * Gatehouse
 * Steve's Place
 * Secret Entrance
 * The Union
 * Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
 * Sheriff's Office
 * Bishop Mordecai's Place
 * Jeremiah's Place
 * Apostles' Place
 * Sheriff O'Connor's Place
 * Pablo's Place
 * Doc Angela's Place
 * Gabriel's Market
 * Graveyard
 * Jacob's Scrapheap
 * Daniel's Place
 * "Revelation" John's Place
 * Marshall's Place

Inhabitants (2253)

 * Living Prophet Jeremiah Rigdon
 * Sheriff Mike O'Connor
 * Apostle Matthew
 * Apostle Jude
 * Bishop Mordecai
 * Pablo
 * Doc Angela
 * Ty
 * Gabriel
 * Jacob
 * Daniel
 * Marshall the Glowing Ghoul
 * "Revelation" John the Super Mutant
 * Steve
 * Emma
 * Various Deputies
 * Various Mormons
 * Various Ghoul Mormons
 * Various War Refugees

Related quests

 * Clear out Wasps for Emma
 * Deal with Marshall
 * De-Trap Union station
 * Diagnose John
 * Get Bulk Gun Parts for Steve
 * Get Rid of the Squatters
 * Investigate Drug Trafficking
 * Make Deal with NCR
 * Make Deal with Burham Springs
 * Overthrow Jeremiah Rigdon
 * Recover Daniel
 * Repel 215 Attackers
 * Resolve 215 Rail Line Gang Threat
 * Resolve Jericho Water Plant Issues
 * Re-Establish Mordecai
 * Teach Pablo about Salicornia

Note

 * From a dialogue with Joshua Graham, each tribe has a favorite weapon, and the one of New Canaan is the .45 Auto pistol for over 400 years. Joshua possesses a unique model of this weapon, which he masters to perfection (not Daniel, preferring the .45 Auto submachine gun).

Appearances
New Canaan does not appear in any of the published games, but was to appear in the cancelled Fallout 3 project by Black Isle codenamed Van Buren, and was designed mostly by J.E. Sawyer. In later drafts of design documents, it says that New Canaan was destroyed in riots and Jericho is all that remained of it, but as New Canaan is mentioned occasionally in Fallout: New Vegas, this is non-canon. New Canaan is also mentioned frequently in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Honest Hearts and appears to have been destroyed by the White Legs.

Behind the scenes

 * Canaan was the land believed to have been promised by God to Abraham and his followers in the Bible.
 * Salt-Upon-Wounds' salting of New Canaan's soil has a historical parallel in Scipio Aemilianus' conquest of Carthage in the Third Punic War, in which the same thing was ordered.
 * According to the location's design document, the design for this town was inspired by The Mission and The Last Temptation of Christ, as well as the opening of The Gunslinger.