Point Lookout (location)

Point Lookout is a swampland that was once Maryland's Point Lookout State Park before the Great War.

Background
Point Lookout was never directly hit by the nuclear bombs dropped by the Chinese on the Capital Wasteland during the Great War, but here the wasteland's irradiated desert terrain gives way to dense swamps and abandoned buildings where nature has gradually removed the human presence over the two hundred years since the War. The area is home to the Swampfolk, a highly deformed people who live all around the swamps of the region. Ghouls and Mirelurks are a common sight here as well, as they are drawn to the area's radioactive swamp waters.

Point Lookout is almost devoid of any organized society or signs of civilization. Other than Tobar the Ferryman, Haley's Hardware, Madame Panada, and the Point Lookout Tribals, it is extremely difficult to find someone to trade with. However, Point Lookout should be a treasure trove of pre-War technology and artifacts, since it escaped the nuclear turmoil that scarred most of the Earth and also likely avoided the harmful effects of the EMP set off by the exploding nuclear warheads. Thus Point Lookout is more than just a small swampy marsh, but a cache of pre-War technology waiting to be exploited. However, the amount of technology actually available in the area is limited, considering not only its rural location, but its isolation from the rest of the Capital Wasteland. Yet, Point Lookout is the final resting place of the Chinese SL-N199 stealth submarine, which was one of the technological marvels of the twenty-first century.

Many references to the American Civil War can be found in the graveyards and mausoleums that dot the area, as well as the abundance of Confederate Hats and Lever-Action Rifles found in the region. This is because during that bloody conflict, Point Lookout served as a Union-controlled camp for Confederate prisoners of war.

The area became known to outsiders from the Capital Wasteland thanks to Punga Fruit, a unique fruit known to grow only in the local bogs, and many legends about the supposed treasures hidden there.

Even though it was not directly hit by nuclear bombs or warheads, the water of Point Lookout's bogs is irradiated, having been contaminated by the Potomac River that flows out of the Capital Wasteland.

The pervasive radiation in the swamps (as well as frequent inbreeding) led to the birth and evolution of the Swampfolk and unusual patches of a greenish-gray, smoking and/or steaming earthy muck that releases flammable methane bubbles occasionally. This muck is a biogas that accumulated because of the radioactive contamination of the mass Civil War-era graves in the area. The decomposing bodies buried in these water-logged graves were irradiated and slowly decomposed into methane because of the radiation's effects on the normal process of decay.

Locations
There are 31 marked locations within Point Lookout as well as a few unmarked ones.

They are as follows (unmarked locations in italics):

Appearances
Point Lookout is the titular location in the Fallout 3 add-on Point Lookout.

Behind the scenes
This location is based on Point Lookout State Park. This area is the peninsula formed by the confluence of the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River.