Denver (Van Buren)

Dog Town is what is left of Denver after the Great War. It's ruined city of dogs and skyscrapers. There is no real civilization here, just a series of salvager camps set up high in the skyscaper ruins, away from the endless pack of feral dogs which roam the streets below.

The salvagers are about 20 New California Republic former prisoners on a special work release program, salvaging stuff for NCR in exchange for their eventual freedom. The dogs are the now-feral descendents of local pets and specially-bred police dogs. Rats, giant cockroaches, mutant bats, and climbing lizards are common hazards. The salvagers were forced out of their original camp by the dogs and now are struggling to get by in their new, temporary camp. Tensions are high because the dog threat is constant, they've heard nothing from NCR in quite some time, and basically the only thing for them to eat is dog meat. There's also a rival group of salvages trying to steal claims, and a mysterious group of military guys here as well. The salvagers live in the partially-constructed buildings of Denver, several stories up and clear of the dogs (who can't climb).

History
Denver is a wreck. It was in the middle of a building boom shortly before the war, as many new jobs were opening there are the city was swollen to bursting. Most of the construction was housing for these immigrants. When the war with China started, resource rationing occurred and suddenly the construction workers didn't have anything to build with and weren't getting paid. Union riots and strikes occurred because the city couldn't pay and the federal government wouldn't step in to help. When Mexico and the Great Midwest Commonwealth started to suffer food shortages, Denver was hit hard because of its high population. Food rationing began. Food riots started because of the rationing, and some buildings were set on fire. The National Guard was called in to contain the rioting, using InstaPens (aka "bullpens") to contain and imprison rioters. Some people deliberately attacked police and National Guard troops so they would be imprisoned and fed. Rioters, National Guard personnel who disobeyed orders, and other military folk who refused to help contain the riots were sent west and east. Then an outbreak of the New Plague hit the city. Rioters burned down large parts of the city in their fear of contamination and anger at their treatment. Many panicked and fled the city by car, clogging the freeways when they ran out of gas and trapping everyone behind them. And then the bombs fell, destroying some of what was left and killing everyone who had managed to live through everything else.

Post-War, Denver has been abandoned by civilized folk, mainly because of lingering radiation (which is gone by now) and huge packs of wild dogs that have taken over the town. Small groups of scavengers have holed up here from time to time or tried to loot some of the buildings but it has never been a concerted effort until now. Recently a bunch of work-release NCR prisoners have come here to salvage stuff as a way to buy off their sentences, and some slavers from Caesar's Legion are waiting out the midwest's seasonal huge radioactive duststorms keeping them from getting home. And there's another gang of salvagers that have moved in and have been raiding claims from the NCR salvagers.

Economy
The salvages have a lot of supplies to trade. If they get the brewery up & running they'll have beer, too. They desperately need some variety in their food, and could use some good medical upkeep too. They'd be happy to trade their stockpiled supplies (or sell claims in the city) for nonperishable food and medical supplies or the services of a medic or doctor.

Relationships with other communities
The salvagers are prisoners from NCR on work-release, and they were treated badly by the administration while in prison, so they're not too friendly to NCR and thus not likely to befriend the folks at Hoover Dam. They don't care one way or the other about the tribals, though the Hangdogs (of the Blackfoots) would be happy to come here and trade for some dogs (which the salvagers would be happy to do, since to them the dogs are pests at best and dangerous predators at worst). They could strike up a deal with the BOS as long as they didn't try to claim any cool tech for themselves. They're used to work and would probably get along fine with the people of New Canaan as long as they were treated well.

Appearances in games
Dog Town did not appear nor was mentioned in any of the published games, but was to appear in the cancelled Fallout 3 project by Black Isle codenamed Van Buren. It is not certain if it will appear in any future Fallout game.

Behind the scenes
The Denver design document was written by Sean K. Reynolds. The entire document (1.0 version from 7/24/2003) leaked and was released by No Mutants Allowed in June 2005.