Bitter Springs

 is a New California Republic base in the far northeastern Mojave Wasteland. The NCR seized the town from local tribals during the Bitter Springs Massacre. The Great Khans suffered heavy losses and lost many noncombatants, which is why they deeply resent the NCR. Great Khan iconography and graffiti can still be found about the camp illustrating their previous ownership.

Background
The Bitter Springs Massacre is an event mentioned in the graphic novel All Roads which came with the Collector's Edition of Fallout:New Vegas and is also referenced by the characters Boone, Manny Vargas, Papa Khan and Bitter-Root during gameplay. In several instances it is revealed that the New California Republic massacred local tribals at Bitter Springs, including the women and almost all of the children (lone survivor on the latter) in their bid to secure the Mojave Wasteland. This might be a reference to the real life event of Wounded Knee in which U.S. soldiers baited native Americans into an empty camp and opened fire killing women, children, elderly, and soldiers alike.

Boone's Account
A number of Khans were tracked to the area by the NCR many years ago. The NCR believed it to be their base of operations, and sent a large detachment of troops to retake the area. The 1st Recon Sniper Squad, Boone included, were sent to cut off escape at Bitter Springs' only exit. Little did the NCR realize that Bitter Spring was the home of Khan women and children. As the Khans were pushed out, 1st Recon was ordered to fire on those retreating. Radio contact with the NCR was "sketchy", not understanding that the situation involved unarmed civilians. Superiors ordered them to "fire until [you're] out of ammo". 1st Recon obeyed, and what happened at Bitter Springs has had a large psychological impact on Boone, motivating him to leave the NCR.

Chance's Account
The history through the eyes of Chance differs from that of Boone, in it the NCR are portrayed as being just as brutal as Caesar's Legion when it comes to pursuing their political agenda for a given area. There was no miscommunication with command, the NCR had standing orders to kill everyone as evidenced by their infantry simply riding into the town and opening fire on its residents (as illustrated in the panel for the massacre). 1st Recon is not seen at all during Chance's flashback, and none of the survivors had any difficulty in retreating. The entire massacre was carried out by regular NCR infantry, not 1st Recon. It had a significant psychological impact on Chance, driving him to the use of drugs and he stopped speaking.

Conclusions
While it is possible that the differing accounts are a continuity error, it's also likely that Chase's long history of drug abuse has muddled up his memories. Seeing how Boone is a veteran with no recorded abuse of either alcohol or drugs, his account is far more reliable and thus a "real" account of the massacre.

Layout
The camp consists of NCR tents to the north and refugee tents at the south end of the camp. The doctor's tent is amongst the NCR tents facing the refugees and Captain Gilles can usually be found sitting by the campfire at the centre.

Notable Loot

 * Salesman Weekly on a cot with a refugee
 * Fixin' Things on the desk in the northmost NCR tent (needs to be stolen)
 * Salesman Weekly on the desk in Capt. Gilles tent

Related Quests

 * No, Not Much After this quest there will be several more troops at Bitter Springs.
 * Climb Ev'ry Mountain
 * Bitter Springs Infirmary Blues
 * I Forgot to Remember to Forget

Appearances
appears in Fallout: New Vegas.

Bugs

 * Walking up the stairs at Bitter Springs will often crash the PS3 version of the game, requiring a hard reset. Recommend saving before going near this location.