The line to enter the Goodsprings General Store snaked down state Route 161, sometimes spilling out into traffic. Wait times stretched well past an hour. Thankfully, there was nourishment nearby in the form of smoked iguana sandwiches and the ever-popular mole rat on a bun.
Thousands of video game fans descended on the tiny former mining town — each shuttle bus dispersing nearly as many visitors as there are full-time residents — for Saturday’s first day of the “Fallout” Fan Celebration. Adding to Goodsprings’ history When Stephen Staats acquired the Pioneer Saloon in 2021, he knew most of its history: the deadly card game in 1915, the ghosts that supposedly haunt the place and the three days Clark Gable spent there in 1942 waiting for word on his wife, Carole Lombard, who’d died in a nearby plane crash. Staats just wasn’t aware of its ties to the “Fallout” franchise, one of the most popular video game series of all time.
Goodsprings figures prominently in “Fallout: New Vegas,” the 2010 release that follows warring factions vying for control in the postapocalyptic Mojave Wasteland. The game’s action begins in Goodsprings, where the player’s character, known as The Courier, is nursed back to health after being shot in the head and left for dead. “Fallout” incorporates the Pioneer Saloon, known in-game as the Prospector Saloon, and its neighboring general store.
The game also includes likenesses of the Old Mormon Fort, Bonnie Springs, Hoover Dam,.
