Black Mountain

 is a location in the Mojave Desert that serves as some sort of radio station for the State of Utobitha in Fallout: New Vegas.

Pre-war
Before The Great War Black Mountain was a radio-transmitting center. The facility and the equipment survived the bombings fairly intact, however, the personnel was wiped out in a matter of days due to heavy radiation exposure(probably from the huge crater at the summit of the mountain).

Arrival of Marcus' group and State of Utobitha
Sometime around 2277, Marcus along with a group of mutants (including Tabitha) discovered the facility. He decided the place was a good location to settle down because of the intact machinery and electronics and the high radiation levels keeping human outsiders and scavengers away. Sometime in 2278 Marcus left together with all the first generation super mutants leaving Tabitha in charge. Having risen to power, she was inspired to create a utopia for mutants, whose rules are based on her nostalgic memories of serving under The Master. She became obsessed with the radio transmitter, hosting a talk-show inviting mutants to join the new "utopia" with her split personality (that of her beloved Rhonda). She ordered mutants to guard all entrances to Black Mountain and shoot humans on sight.

Layout
On the way to the mountain, there are shortcuts. Be careful as these shortcuts might have tumbling rocks that will kill you. One safe way up to the summit is to climb up from the El Dorado Substation east of Black mountain, no rockfalls or patrols encountered. On the Main road, there are patrols of mostly 3 super mutants and 1 nightkin. One checkpoint has many mutants, so you may want to have a good supply of ammo and stimpaks. A trail leading from Hidden Valley has about 5 evolved centaurs and a special one named Moe, who hangs around a highly radioactive crater that has a dead Brotherhood of Steel trooper. The BOS trooper has a holotape that might get you into Hidden Valley. He also has Power Armor and a Laser Rifle. After getting to the mountain, there is a building that houses the controls for the radio station. Near the top by the radiostation, by where the nightkin sniper is position lie the controls for realligning the dishes.

Under the overturned dish that is used as a makeshift camp are two chests. One has an average lock but both contain about 300 caps. A minigun can be had here in one locked chest.

Inside the Prison Building will be a Ghoul named Raul Tejada with 100 repair skill. You can free him and/or make him your companion. A trick to do is to get him to repair your stuff then pickpocket your money back. This will save you tons of time and money.

Notable Loot

 * Annabelle on the Nightkin Sniper standing on the radio tower platform.
 * 300 - 400 Caps in each of the trunks in the makeshift camp. (Neil refers to this as the village.)
 * One Nuka-Cola Victory in the Storage Building.
 * A Missile launcher in the storage building.
 * 6 .357 Magnum revolver or 9mm pistol in the storage Building.
 * Intact Garden Gnome inside the storage building.
 * A Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap in the storage building, between two Sarsaparilla crates on the bottom shelf, left of the training dummy.

Appearances
appears in Fallout: New Vegas.

Summary
After reading logs on a terminal just inside the broadcast building, you find some back-story plot. One of the employees notes that the "tension is pretty high around here." Two logs later, he states, "It's actually happening. We have readings across the board of launches happening everywhere. They must've thrown everything they had, and it looks like we didn't hold back either. The computer says we have 2 minutes until the first missile drops." The same employee's final log was written right as a missile hit, presumably the ones which caused the crater in the summit. Given the layout of the summit, it's probable that the location was a military post of some sort, likely a radar or monitoring post. This is further suggested by comments on the terminals which suggest that they (those at Black Mountain) were monitoring the Chinese. Information from the Brotherhood of Steel's database in Hidden Valley indicates that the facility also jammed radar in the general area of the valley to further enhance its security. Years later a group of Mariposa super mutants and Nightkin led by Marcus found Black Mountain and made a camp. Shortly after the camp was established Marcus and a number of Super Mutants left to find more suitable settlement. Those who remained now are under the rule of State of Utobitha led by Tabitha

Behind the scenes
Black Mountain is an actual location south of Las Vegas and near Henderson, Nevada. A number of broadcast antennas are located at the top.

Refrences

 * May be a refrence to the song "White Summer/Black Mountain Side" by Led Zeppelin, although this song is completely instrumental (ie has no lyrics), making refrence through lyrics to game impossible. The Developers may have named it this in a tribute to Led Zeppelin.

Bugs

 * After the completion of the quest Eyesight to the Blind, the crater area may become glitched and cause a crash. If you haven't gotten Raul Tejada, this causes you to be unable to get him as a companion.
 * If you get Raul as a follower, the mountain fast travel point may become glitched. The game will freeze when the player walks near the crater.
 * You Can sometimes get 'trapped' in storage room if you are entering the room with two companions. (repairing and then killing Rhonda allows someone with two companions to exit a "trapped" store room)
 * Occasionally, Sunny Smiles will spawn next to the storage room. This makes some quests impossible is if this happens at certain times.
 * Having Boone as a companion, you can stuck in the ground and the console will freeze. This can be fixed by sending Boone to Lucky 38
 * Giving Boone the BoS armor may cause it to disappear.
 * If you take the route from Neil's Shack then there should be a minimal amount of super mutants at the summit, however if you fast travel there or load your game at the summit then there are many more super mutants there.