Nelson

Nelson is a small settlement that was taken over by Caesar's Legion during the Battle of Nelson. It is located south-west of Camp Forlorn Hope and just east of Novac.

Origins
Nelson's history dates back to the 18th century and the Spanish discovery of gold in the Eldorado Canyon. The future Nelson was at the heart of the biggest mining boom in Nevada's history when gold and silver were discovered around the town. Its meteoric rise was assisted by a corresponding one in crime, especially the notorious Techatticup mine in the middle of the canyon. Ownership, management, and labor conflicts led to a spate of wanton killings, made worse by the town's remote location and popularity during the dark years of the American Civil War, when it attracted deserters from both the Union and the Confederacy, hoping to elude authorities. It received its name in 1897, after a camp leader killed by a renegade native American. By the middle of the 20th century the mining activities petered out, turning Nelson into a virtual ghost town.

As such, the Great War barely touched it or the people living here. However, in the decades after the Great War, the closed mines were reopened by enterprising miners in order to exploit what remained of gold, silver, copper, and lead. What would have escaped the notice of pre-War corporations was more than enough for the wastelanders.

NCR occupation
In 2281, the NCR Army occupied it, with the intention of turning it into a military camp for logistics planning as well as to fill in the strategic gap between Camp Forlorn Hope and Camp Searchlight. However, the troopers barely managed to settle in, before a Legion attack force under Decanus Dead Sea arrived and took Nelson. Combined with both the lack of proper reinforcements and Camp Searchlight falling to Legion sabotage, the NCRA stationed at Camp Forlorn Hope could not properly react to Nelson's capture and has remained in Legion control since.

Under orders from Caesar to demoralize troops in the area, Dead Sea had killed most troopers stationed at Nelson and executed dozens of other troopers by throwing them off the cliffs into the Colorado River. The few remaining that had not been killed were crucified in the middle of camp for any on-lookers to see. Since taking Nelson, Dead Sea has led assaults against Camp Forlorn Hope to the north with two contubernia.

Layout
Nelson rests on a mesa on the western side of the Eldorado Canyon, enclosed by what remains of State Road 165. Outlying homes and buildings have been stripped of salvage and turned to skeletons, with the mining camp and town itself enclosed by a chainlink fence and surrounded by bunkers made from sandbags. The tallest point in Nelson lies just up the hill, with a flag post bereft of the Bear, replaced by watchful Legion sentries monitoring approaches to the town. The NCR cannot help but try to contain the Legion, watching it from Camp Forlorn Hope and a roadblock established up the road from Nelson.

The town itself is centered around a plaza, now decorated with three crucified NCR troopers. A pair of barracks overlook the plaza, with a dumping ground in the back. Surviving houses line the perimeter, used for a variety of purposes, including storage, armory, mess hall, and other needs. There's also a small fortified position on the terrace below the town, overlooking the Colorado, with three graves nearby.

All of the inhabitants have been culled by Dead Sea and his legionaries, either hacked apart or forced to jump off the cliffs. As such, the only people who remain in the area are the aforementioned crucified troopers and legionaries. A squad of three NCR trooper with caravan shotguns will occasionally stage a raid at the town, but be easily repulsed.

There are two barracks in the north-north-east part of Nelson. The one on the left contains the bodies of two NCR troopers and the one on the right contains another body as well as two recruit legionaries and the legionary leader, Dead Sea. In the northwest there is a vacated house.

Notable loot

 * Liberator: Unique machete, carried by Dead Sea in the eastern barracks.
 * Nuka-Cola Victory: In the Nelson house west of the barracks, behind the fridge.
 * NCR dogtags are found on all dead NCR soldiers.
 * C-4 plastic explosive with detonator: In a footlocker at the NCR roadblock with Ranger Milo.

Related quests

 * Back in Your Own Backyard: Killing or saving the three crucified troopers in camp.
 * Restoring Hope: The liberation of Nelson is the culmination of the efforts at Camp Forlorn Hope.
 * We Are Legion: Killing the officers at Camp Forlorn Hope paves the way for the Legion's attack.

Appearances
Nelson appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

 * There is an actual small town named Nelson in Nevada.
 * Megan Parks was responsible for layout, prop placement, decoration, terrain shaping, and vistas in this location.
 * Spare Us the Cutter
 * As with Forlorn Hope, there are odd things cut here. Firstly there are several markers around the central campfire as with Forlorn Hope. These again control the enabling/disabling of various groups of NPCs. Of particular interest is VNelsonDeadTroopersMarker, which enables lots of dead NCR troops in the area (most of which are placed on top of land mines). This is unused in the final game and the dead troops are never seen (despite the Legion boasting of recently massacring them).
 * There's also a second marker called VNelsonExtraNPCMarker that enables a whole load of extra Legion NPCs. It's again unclear why these were left disabled, other than either to improve frame rate/fix memory problems on consoles, or to make the area easier. Looking at the game's code, these NPCs are supposed to be disabled after talking to Dead Sea in certain situations. His dialogue script individually disables some of the NPCs tied to these markers. However, this doesn't actually work, as NPCs with enable states tied to other objects can ONLY be enabled/disabled if the parent object is itself enabled/disabled.

Bugs

 * After the NCR has spawned and the Legionaries are gone, there may be 3 Legionaries running into each other in front of the camp fire, not going anywhere.
 * Sometimes when leaving Nelson near the guard tower facing Forlorn Hope the Legion guards may attack you regardless of your rep with them. If you or your followers kill them, you will lose your reputation with them. If this occurs, reload save and just go around and stay out of sight. Occurs when doing a quest for Dead Sea.
 * Instead of three NCR troopers attacking Nelson, a group of roughly twelve may attack. They will kill any Legion Guards or Mongrels outside, and then stand in a circle in the center of the town.
 * Sometimes the NCR soldiers that are "tied up" are simply standing in front of the crosses. They appear to be "untied" but still need to be untied.