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. It can be located on the main map easily by spotting the winding road roughly east of Goodsprings and Sloan. Neil's Shack marks the bottom of the mountain and the start of the road.

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).

The facility also served some kind of military capacity as it housed electronic countermeasures to protect the nearby Hidden Valley complex.

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 which is one of the three mission holotapes you need to find during the quest Still in the Dark for the Brotherhood of Steel. 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. At the top by the radio station there is a tower where a Nightkin sniper is positioned. There are also 4 control panels labeled "Radio Transmitter Control Panel". Does anyone know what they do?

Under the overturned dish that is used as a makeshift camp are three chests. Two have average locks but one contains about 300 caps. A minigun can be had here in one locked chest. The last chest contains about 400 caps.

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, pickpocketing works maybe 0-10000 caps, but not when you are dealing 10000+ caps.

If you cannot hack the computer to release the lock to Raul's prison room (hard - needs 100 science) then you can find the password for it on the other computer in the prison room.

To get into Tabitha's room you'll need the key. A computer in the Broadcast Building, 1st Floor will give you a hint on where to search for it. Exit the other door to outside iron stairs. The Key is Under a rock behind the stairs.

Notable Loot

 * After the first Super mutant blockade the road will bend right. As you come around the bend look left and you will see a gully full of bear traps. Slowly ascend the gully disarming the traps until you reach the 3rd one. Look left and you will see a ledge which can be climbed. Climb up and walk to the end where you will find a gore bag. Look around the gore bag to find a Hunting revolver, Combat Helmet, Tire iron (Fallout: New Vegas) and Caps.
 * Suitcase (2) each with Pre-War money (20). First one just before second blockade, go through radiated swamp left of road and through little passage. Second one at second Super mutant blockade.
 * Cuddles' toy car in prison building. Read all the entries on the computer terminal then look on the table for this unique item.
 * Frag grenade (Fallout: New Vegas) (3) and a Ammunition box at third Super mutant blockade.
 * Annabelle on the Nightkin Sniper standing on the radio tower platform.
 * 300 - 400 Caps in each of the trunks in the makeshift camp aswell as a Minigun (Fallout: New Vegas) and ammo. (Neil refers to this as the village.)
 * One Nuka-Cola Victory in the Storage Building.
 * Super stimpack under bucket to right of training dummy in Storage Building.
 * A Missile launcher and ammo in the storage building.
 * 6 .357 Magnum revolver or 9mm pistol in the storage Building and in Tabithas room (Broadcast Building, 2nd Floor).
 * 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.
 * C-4 plastic explosive, three bricks in the storage building. One on top of the nuka cola machine, one behind the storage container on left wall. And one near east wall.
 * Sheet music book and Repair Note #3 on 2nd floor of Broadcast Building.

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.

Bugs

 * After the completion of,or after being given, 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)
 * You can get trapped between the reloading bench and the big metal wheel in the storage room if you jump there.
 * Occasionally, Sunny Smiles or Easy Pete 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 become 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 (confirmed on PC, Handed the armor to Boone in the New Vegas Medical Clinic, I got the message saying that he couldn't wear that factions armor, the sound for armor dropping to the ground played, but nothing dropped and the armor was no longer in his inventory).
 * Because he refuses to wear it. If given Brotherhood armor, he will immediately drop it on the ground.
 * 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.
 * Radiation levels will indicate +1 but still climb at an unprotected rate. This is regardless of whether or not the Courier is wearing the Space Suit or ingested Rad-X.
 * Rarely, a Deathclaw may spawn near the large crater on top of the mountain (360,PS3 confirmed 11-29-10). Just be sure to save before traveling to the area, as facing a Deathclaw alongside many Super Mutant Masters is extremely difficult.
 * If you have completed For Auld Lang Syne, it is possible that Arcade Gannon will spawn and start up a conversation with the player. You are not able to recruit him as a companion and the only option is to end the conversation. He disappears shortly after.
 * When using the terminal in the prison building, the screen may become blurred but not bring up the monitor interface for the computer. This will fix itself by leaving the building and re-entering but using scoped weapons will now show the image of the computer terminal.
 * When approaching the large overturned dish past the crater, the game may become very jumpy. This will either cause a freeze or merely continue until all mutants (except tabitha) are dead and the player is standing in the compound at the very top of the hill.
 * When climbing back down the mountain after reunited Tabitha with Rhonda, it is possible that attacking any nightkin or centaur will cause Rhonda and Tabitha to join the fight and attack you. After the original attackers are dead they will dissapear altogether. Fast travelling to Jacobstown will show that Tabitha is still hostile to the player.