Every playthrough of Fallout: New Vegas starts the same way. A man in a checkered suit shoots you in the head, drops you in a shallow grave, and walks away with a platinum chip. A robot digs you out, a small-town doctor patches you up, and the first place you ever see in the Mojave Wasteland is Goodsprings. What many players do not know is that Goodsprings is a real place. It sits in the hills southwest of Las Vegas, the cemetery is real, and the saloon is still open. It is also just down the road from Adrenaline Mountain.
Header photo: the Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings, Nevada, by Gayinspandex1 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
What is Fallout: New Vegas?
Fallout: New Vegas is a role-playing game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Bethesda Softworks in 2010. It is set in and around Las Vegas about two centuries after a nuclear war. You play the Courier, a delivery runner caught between the New California Republic, Caesar''s Legion, the mysterious Mr. House and a long list of smaller factions all fighting for control of the Strip. Players can travel to recognizable places such as the Strip, Downtown (Freeside), Boulder City, Red Rock Canyon, Mount Charleston, Primm and Nipton. More than a decade later, the game still has a huge, active fan base.
How did the developers pick Goodsprings?
Obsidian built the game''s map on real Southern Nevada geography, and the team did field research to get it right. According to Nevada Public Radio, game director Josh Sawyer rode a motorcycle across the region with the Obsidian team to scout locations, and one of their stops was Goodsprings. Sawyer has also said publicly that he visited the Pioneer Saloon in 2009, the year before the game came out.
Goodsprings made sense as a starting point. It is small, remote and surrounded by open desert, so it works as the game''s tutorial area. You learn to talk, trade, sneak and fight in a quiet town before you head down the highway toward Primm and, eventually, the lights of New Vegas. Researchers at UNLV describe it as the game''s tutorial space, and note that several in-game buildings were directly inspired by real ones.
Who lives in Goodsprings in the game?
For a town of a few buildings, Goodsprings packs in some of the most memorable characters in the game:
Doc Mitchell is the town doctor who saves your life. His house is where you create your character.
Victor is the cheerful cowboy Securitron robot who digs you out of your grave. He keeps turning up later in the game.
Sunny Smiles and her dog Cheyenne teach you to shoot by clearing geckos at the Goodsprings Source, the town''s spring.
Trudy runs the Prospector Saloon, the game''s version of the Pioneer Saloon.
Chet runs the general store, and Easy Pete is the old prospector on the porch who teaches you about explosives.
Ringo is a trader hiding from Joe Cobb and the Powder Gangers, escaped convicts from a nearby prison. Siding with the town or the gang is the first big choice of the game.
Then there is the Goodsprings Cemetery, where the story begins. The real Goodsprings cemetery sits on a hill outside town, and many fans visit to stand where the Courier was buried.
What is the real Pioneer Saloon?
The Pioneer Saloon was built in 1913, when Goodsprings was a busy mining town in the Yellow Pine Mining District. Its walls are covered in pressed tin, and it is one of the oldest operating saloons in Nevada. The saloon also has Hollywood history. In January 1942, the plane carrying actress Carole Lombard crashed into Mount Potosi, just north of town. Local tradition holds that Clark Gable waited at the Pioneer Saloon for news while search parties climbed the mountain.
Today the saloon has become a pilgrimage site for Fallout fans. Visitors come in costume, take photos out front, and swap stories at the bar. The UNLV study calls this "meme tourism" and found that the game has had a positive impact on the town and its saloon. If you want the full history of the town itself, read our Goodsprings, Nevada history guide and our article on the Yellow Pine Mining District.
What is Mojave Mayhem?
Mojave Mayhem is a Fallout-inspired festival held near Goodsprings, about three miles from Adrenaline Mountain. It brings wasteland fans out to the same desert the game is set in. To match it, we built our Wasteland loadouts: shooting packages with guns that fans will recognize from the game. They are permanent fixtures at Adrenaline Mountain and bookable starting Wednesday, November 11, 2026. You can see the full lineup on our Fallout: New Vegas shooting experience page.
Adrenaline Mountain is not affiliated with Bethesda Softworks, Obsidian Entertainment or the Fallout franchise.
How do you visit Goodsprings from Las Vegas?
Goodsprings is about 40 minutes from the Las Vegas Strip. Take I-15 south to Jean, then head west on State Route 161 for about seven miles. The route follows the same path the Courier walks between Goodsprings and Primm in the game. While you are out here, you can turn a fan trip into a full day: grab a drink at the saloon, walk the cemetery, then head to Adrenaline Mountain for outdoor shooting, off-road tours on the same desert trails, or a car you get to blow up. See our directions page, or browse more things to do near Goodsprings.
The desert around town is also worth a look. Read about the wild horses near Goodsprings and the plants of the Mojave Desert.
Sources
Eric Duran-Valle, "Welcome to Fabulous New Vegas," Desert Companion / Nevada Public Radio, March 31, 2024.
David Schwartz, "Back in the Saddle: Fallout: New Vegas and Meme Tourism in Goodsprings, Nevada''s Pioneer Saloon," UNLV Digital Scholarship, 2021.
Josh Sawyer, answer about visiting the Pioneer Saloon in 2009, @jesawyer on Tumblr.
Michael McWhertor, "How To Write A Post Apocalyptic RPG, The Fallout: New Vegas Way," Kotaku, July 23, 2010.
Photo: "Historic Pioneer Saloon Good Springs Nevada" by Gayinspandex1, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
