Chevalle Crime Family, Dupont Crime Family, Phoenix-Messenger Caravan Company
Notable Events:
New Anaconda Ghoul Purge, Chevalle-Dupont Crime War, Church Street Gunfight
“New Anaconda, whoever named it named it right because that's all this town is, a bed of anaconda snakes. Turn your back for one second and you can expect to find your wallet gone and a knife in your spine.”— Anonymous caravaneer.
Once a small copper town in southwestern Montana prior to the Great War of 2077, New Anaconda is one of the most anarchic settlements that formed from the renaissance of caravan trade between 2100 and 2230 in the Montana wasteland.
History
Pre-War
Anaconda was first founded in 1883 by Marcus Daly as a copper processing town from where a newly financed copper smelter could be located. As the years passed by multiple elements entered the town as it grew with its peak around 12,000 citizens. At one point the smelter stack was the largest of its kind in the entire world. The copper business continued until 1980 where environmental concerns caused it to be shut down and a massive environmental cleanup went underway. The town remained a small community over the course of the century until the Great War.
The War
Despite its mostly rural landscape, Montana with its vast potential for agriculture was targeted by the nuclear warheads which scorched the earth and plunged it into an irradiated hellscape. While Anaconda itself was deemed with its population of under 10,000 not vital enough to directly target, the surrounding area was struck, drastically irradiating the area. The shockwave leveled several buildings and the smelting stack which a century before the locals had fought so hardly to keep crumbled under the force of the nuclear blast.
Post-War
Within weeks of the bombing 6,862 of the 7,335 inhabitants of Anaconda had been killed by fallout, radiation, or ingestion of contaminated food and water products. Of the 473 survivors around 200 were ghoulified by the radiation and these mutations plunged Anaconda into a state of anarchistic war against ghouls and the xenophobic and paranoid survivors who were both horrified by the ghoul's appearance and believed it to be an infectious disease caused by radiation rather than its byproduct.
Twelve years of anarchy and violence between ignorant and intolerant people and ghouls passed with the death of all ghouls in Anaconda by 2089. These events, known as the New Anaconda Ghoul Purge left the town weak and allowed the well trained and corrupt former SWAT officer, Jean Dupont to start with his friends the Dupont Crime Family which claimed control in 2089 and declared the ruins of Anaconda as the settlement of New Anaconda, property of the Duponts.
By 2113, the newly starting Phoenix-Messenger Caravan Company encountered New Anaconda and after negotiation opened a company outpost in the town and opened it up to trade with other groups. New Anaconda flourished by gaining massive amounts of money through selling room and board to caravaneers and occasionally enslaving a merchant to sell him somewhere else by order of the Duponts.
Running a stable economy by 2145, the Duponts continued to run a corrupt and oppressive dictatorship in New Anaconda, opening up a weapon making plant in the former Oak Leaf High School in 2149 producing shotguns, rifles, repeaters, and sidearms of low quality along with ammunition using pre-War hunting schematics.
The weapon industry allowed the Duponts to start a caravan group, the Dupont Caravan Corporation whose base of operations was inside their weapons plant. Over the next twenty-two years the economy of New Anaconda continued to steadily rise and order started to surface for around a century.
This impression of stability was ruined in May 2278 when the Jacques Chevalle, head of the Chevalle Crime Family, a group of gangsters very similar to the Duponts fled the New California Republic to New Anaconda settling down with several hostage doctors and chemists from the Followers of the Apocalypse, his top lieutenants, his immediate family, and thirty henchmen.
Relations between the two groups were tense until December 2278 when Chevalle henchmen engaged several of the Duponts in the Chevalle Family headquarters, the Copperhead Casino in response to verbal taunts and their refusal to relinquish their weaponry. This led to an all out street war which continues to the current day. To help fund the war, the Caravan Chevalle Group was opened from the Copperhead Casino selling chems which were made by the hostage Followers to help fund the war against the Duponts. This war has taken near three hundred causalities and resulted in numerous shootings, assassinations, and massacres the most famous of which - The Church Street Gunfight, has made the crime war a legend throughout the Northern and Southwestern Commonwealths.
Full anarchy plagued and still plagues the streets of New Anaconda, crippling the economy and scaring away many merchants, the only people aided by this are mercenaries who found job opportunities aplenty in the newly war torn New Anaconda whose gangster family feuds have no end in sight.
Culture
The people of New Anaconda are a strong group. Forced through the hardships of anarchy, crime, and intimidation from crime lords who are the closest the town has had to an organized government. In response to such conditions they are mostly quick to turn to violence and intolerant of newcomers who will not stimulate the economy through their patronage and ghouls who are shot at on sight, giving New Anaconda a terrible reputation among the ghoul world and ghouls normally avoid the town at all costs.
The organized crime that occurs in New Anaconda has bonded locals together creating a deep sense of trust and loyalty among friends and neighbors. While practically all manner of vices are tolerated and welcomed, betrayal of a friend, criminal partner, or crime family is an offense that is treated most harshly by almost all residents and a traitor who has broken a bond of trust between friend of family or a code of silence by betraying crime family secrets to a rival group is shown no mercy.
Despite the crime and murder which is what is expected of most residents, art has had a small rebirth in New Anaconda and a skilled artist is generally a wealthy person due to the large amounts of caps that a crime boss will pay for the commission of a hand painted portrait of themselves. Historically when a new don is crowned in either the Chevalle or Dupont family an artist is commissioned to paint a picture of the boss which is then hung in the crime family's headquarters. This has attracted many artists to New Anaconda and slightly raised the town's reputation giving it some level of respect for its patronage of the arts.
Economy
The vast potential of New Anaconda has led to many investors and entrepreneurs and with the influence of the Duponts and Chevalles a complex economy which is a growing economic force in the Montana Wasteland. Currently the average annual gross domestic product of New Anaconda is around 130,000 caps. Making New Anaconda a profitable town to say the least.
Weapons
By far the most powerful driving force of New Anaconda's economy is its limited weapons trade. Following the Dupont's rise to power the crime family started a small scale weapon operation creating shotguns, rifles, repeaters, and sidearms from schematics of pre-War hunting weapons. This started as an effective way to quickly arm their own members however with the rise in caravaneer presence, the Duponts started selling weapons to caravans and eventually started the Dupont Caravan Corporation. While their weaponry and ammunition is mostly lower quality with bullet casings and metal weapon parts such as barrels being made from scrap tin and aluminum metal their operation has grown to a moderate sized and profitable business, making the Duponts rich and weapons and munitions New Anaconda's largest export.
Despite attempts to encroach on the operation by the Chevalles who have in vein tried to bribe and kidnap workers at the Oak Leaf High School which is now the manufacturing site of the Dupont's weaponry, the Chevalles have had no success and their weapon operation cannot compete with the Duponts.
Chems
While the Chevalles have had no success in muscling in on the Duponts, they have had plenty of success in establishing the second most profitable industry in New Anaconda, the chem trade. Along with his henchmen and top lieutenants, Jacques Chevalle when fleeing the NCR in 2278 brought with him several chemists from the Followers of the Apocalypse whom after torture helped his men create buffout and jet with local chemicals from the New Anaconda area.
This imparted knowledge has allowed the Chevalles to become the second largest supplier of chems in the mostly drug free Montana area and made the Chevalles a fortune to help fund their war against the Duponts for control of the town of New Anaconda.
Entertainment and Hospitality
New Anaconda's oldest and third largest income source is its entertainment and hospitality offered to caravaneers, traveling merchants, and drifters. Historically room and board as well as sales of drinks and food to travelers have provided good income for New Anaconda.
Before the Duponts and their expansion of the New Anaconda economy, hospitality and entertainment were its top driving force. However with their takeover the industry has slightly dropped due to competition from the Dupont's weapon trade which offered better wages and gave employment to more people than inns ever could.
As the years passed however, the hospitality business turned to entertainment which could allow profits from both travelers and locals. From 2156-2162 two brothels opened in town as well as one bar and a small scale casino known as the Old Country Casino opened.
With the arrival of the Chevalles, the entertainment industry shot up. Within a month both the Broken Heart and Shrieking Sally brothels were bought out and the Old Country Casino torched by the Chevalles in response to the owner, David Thompson refusing a buyout offer. A replacement casino, the Copperhead was opened by the Chevalles three months later in the former Hearst Free Library.
By the 2280s the entertainment and hospitality industry was at its peak though forever left behind by the vice of chems and drugs which consumed and spiked New Anaconda's economy.
Government
Throughout its history the leader of New Anaconda has always been the current don of the Dupont Crime Family whose weaponry and manpower has always surpassed that of the local populace. While there are no real laws, the don has the power granted to him by his henchmen's weaponry to enact anything and most looked up to the don as an all powerful autocrat. The don had the power to enact any law he or she so desired which was always enforced. Leadership of the Dupont Crime Family is selected by the don before stepping down which ensures that leadership will be transferred to someone of a similar mindset who upon receiving authority as don takes the surname "Dupont" in honor of the founder of the group. If a don is killed then the top seven lieutenants of the Dupont Crime Family hold an emergency council and vote a new don into power. Killing a don to try to gain their position is frowned upon and normally met with death.
However since the arrival of the Chevalle Crime Family in the 2270s and the subsequent start of the Chevalle-Dupont Crime War the ownership of New Anaconda has been split between the two dons with each side roughly controlling about half of New Anaconda at all times. Occasionally when a dire situation arises the two dons will combine resources to help ensure the safety of the town.
Most of the time the two dons control their respective sides while managing their side of the war with the other crime family. In general the two dons rule with the same lawless mentality only punishing an offender who has wronged them and keeping the peace on the streets of New Anaconda by the barrel of a gun.
Notable Points of Interests
Anaconda County Courthouse - The headquarters of the Duponts, the county courthouse was previously the county seat of Deer Lodge County however now serves as the mansion of the don and top lieutenants of the Duponts and their base of operations where business proposals are brought up, hits are ordered, and the Duponts side of the Chevalle-Dupont Crime War managed.
Church Street Gallows - Constructed in the 2140s, the gallows at Church Street have been a place of execution
The Church Street Gallows
for the Duponts for over a century. Made with forced labor, over ninety people have swung from a rope at this wood platform and is a sight that enemies of the Duponts fear and spectators love. Hangings are often a public spectacle and large crowds gather to see enemies of the Duponts dance the hangman's jig every few months. Recently the site of the notorious Church Street Gunfight, the gallows have gained even more notoriety and publicity in recent years.
Oak Leaf High School - Once a high school, now a weapons plant for the Dupont's arms business and headquarters of the Dupont Caravan Corporation. The high school employs around two dozen people producing low quality weapons for sale to both locals and caravans. Despite multiple attempts, the Chevalles have not managed to destroy or capture the school.
Hearst Free Library - Once the Hearst Free Library, now the Copperhead Casino is a bed of vice and sin where the Chevalles offer rooms, gambling, and female company to guests so long as they pay and enslave or kill those who don't. In the backrooms behind the poker, blackjack, roulette, and baccarat tables the Chevalle Crime Family, the Caravan Chevalle Group, and the Chevalle chem operation is run making the Copperhead a lucrative establishment.
Anaconda Police Station - The former police department HQ of Anaconda, the police station was sold to the Phoenix-Messenger Caravan Company in 2117 as their headquarters in town for twelve thousand caps. The energy weapon dealers have fortified the station well and offer protection, food, and shelter to any caravaneers employed with the company passing through town and using laser rifles to keep anybody else out.
