Welch

Welch is a town in the Ash Heap region of Appalachia in 2102.

Background
Before the Great War, Welch was a mining town where workers from various mines in the area lived. Shortly before the War, an non-depleted Ultracite vein in Atomic Mining Services' Mine Shaft No. 9. burst into Welch. AMS was dispatched to secure the Ultracite vein and began to evict the town's residents, stating they had mineral rights to the entire town. Those who resisted were violently removed by AMS security. The Charleston Herald sent reporters to investigate, but they found the town occupied by armed guards, and were promptly escorted from the area "by armed men, wearing AMS logos." However, the company's actions only provoked the townspeople into open revolt. News of the revolt quickly spread across the region and prompted laid off miners to start attacking AMS and the other major mining companies until they were pacified by the National Guard.

Layout
Welch is now a wasteland, nothing but a set of one- and two-story buildings and their remnants, situated at the bottom of a cliff from Welch station. Ground fires are scattered and numerous in the area.

A weapons workbench can be found against a garage west of the post office on "Elkhorn St." Wooden catwalks connect several of the buildings on this street and ash rose can be found around the street and throughout the rest of the town.

Duchess' hideout is located at the collapsed back of a building west of town, down a cliff from most other houses. Its blue mailbox says "Z. Wilson."

A young woman in a tattered dress lies dead in the broken house with a porch, on the southeast side of town. Evan's house is a long brick building uphill farther east.

A U-Mine-It! vending machine can be found beneath a Red Rocket ad on the side of the bakery building.

Notable loot

 * Overseer's journal, entry 5 - Holotape, in Evan's house, during Personal Matters.
 * Random plans:
 * Randomly generated, at Duchess' hideout.
 * On a crate near a skeleton, at back of the house opposite of Duchess' house, on the hill.
 * On a crate near the weapons workbench in front of the house marked 'Electrical'.
 * Silver and uranium ore veins - Just to the right of the Duchess' safe box.
 * Surveillance system tape - 8/08/77 - Holotape, at the southeast side of town, at a destroyed house in the open bedroom, on the ground.
 * Eviction notice recording: The Kaminskis - Holotape, inside an opened coffin jutting out of the cliff side near Duchess' stash, beside a skeleton.
 * Case notes: Duchess
 * Safe key - Northeast of the train tracks. Opens nearby safe.
 * Random recipe - Inside a southeast house with the body of a young woman, near a sink.

Appearances
Welch appears only in Fallout 76.

Behind the scenes
Welch is a real-world town in McDowell County, West Virginia, of which it is the county seat. The town is smaller than in real life, with many buildings, such as the town library, being absent.