Quarry Junction

Fictional record. This page describes a mine from a fictional setting, not a real place. Information is based on the cited canon, with adaptations and interpretation distinguished where necessary. It is kept separate from the real MineArchive corpus — see Fictional.

Overview

Quarry Junction is the NCR's limestone quarry in Fallout: New Vegas, the source of the cement for the fortifications along the Colorado River, and the reason the direct road from Goodsprings to New Vegas is closed. Its foreman Chomps Lewis explains the operation from the camp at Sloan: 'We make cement for the NCR using the limestone we dig out with dynamite and draglines. Dirty work, but the pay's good.' The limestone goes by rail to Boulder City for mixing. In 2281 the escaped convicts of the Powder Gangers took the workers' whole supply of dynamite, the quarry fell silent, and a pack of deathclaws moved in; the workers sit idle at Sloan, warning travellers off, until the Courier kills the pack's mother and alpha male in the unmarked quest Claws Out.

History

The quarry is pre-war, its draglines 'pre-War tech, so you need to thump it once in awhile to keep it running'. After the First Battle of Hoover Dam in 2277 the New California Republic took it over as its main source of limestone, shipping the stone by rail to the intact cement plant at Boulder City for the concrete of its bunkers and river defences against Caesar's Legion. Sloan, the workers' camp of barracks, mining office, machine shop and mess hall beside the road, was 'one of the only places where workers could earn a less than average wage': the men are paid in NCR paper dollars, which the local merchants value at about half their face in bottle caps. In 2281 a group of Powder Gangers, convicts the NCR had been using to maintain the railways, broke out of the NCR Correctional Facility, attacked Sloan and 'took our entire supply of dynamite'. The quarry was shut down to wait for more blasting sticks, and deathclaws, which had kept away from the noise and the workers, moved in as a pack with a mother and an alpha male. With the NCR 'a no-show', Lewis and his men put up warning signs as far as Goodsprings Cemetery, stop northbound travellers on the Long 15 and send them round by Primm, and keep up morale with a tame mole rat. The Courier may offer to clear the quarry; Lewis doubts a low-level stranger can, gives a confident one medical supplies, and pays five hundred dollars and NCR standing when the pack leaders are dead. The developer Josh Sawyer later said the quarry, with Black Mountain and Scorpion Gulch, was meant to test players rather than simply block the road.

Workings

An open quarry worked by blasting with dynamite and by draglines, 'a big machine which moves rocks around, piles at a time'; a generator at Sloan powers the quarry and is broken when the Courier arrives. The floor holds pools of water, human remains, a Fat Man launcher and the deathclaw den with its eggs. None of the draglines can be operated in the game.

Real-world mining concepts used here: Limestone, Opencast Working, Shot-firing

Closure

Loss of the blasting supply to the Powder Gangers, then the deathclaw infestation; the NCR sends neither dynamite nor troops.

What became of it

Infested by deathclaws in 2281 until cleared; bark scorpions and the occasional deathclaw return afterwards.

Canon & adaptations

Quarry Junction appears only in Fallout: New Vegas (2010). The Official Game Guide's description places Sloan 'off the Long 19' where the game has Interstate 15. The concept was Sawyer's and the design Jeff Husges's; Bethesda's weapons tester used the quarry's deathclaws as his benchmark for overpowered weapons.

Recorded claims

Each claim is marked with its basis — explicit canon, MineArchive inference, adaptation only, or fandom interpretation — and attached to the source(s) below. Where tellings disagree, both are kept.

• Chomps Lewis: 'We make cement for the NCR using the limestone we dig out with dynamite and draglines'; the stone goes by rail to Boulder City and Hoover Dam. (explicit canon) ^1,2
• The draglines are pre-war machines that move rock 'piles at a time' and need thumping to keep running; none can be operated by the player. (explicit canon) ¹
• Powder Gangers, escaped convicts the NCR had used to maintain the railways, attacked the camp and took the entire supply of dynamite, and the quarry was shut down to wait for more. (explicit canon) ^1,3
• Deathclaws had kept away from the noise and the workers but moved in as a pack once the quarry fell quiet; killing the mother and alpha male scatters them. (explicit canon) ^1,4
• Workers are paid in NCR dollars, valued locally at about half their face in bottle caps. (explicit canon) ¹
• The unmarked quest rewards the Courier with five hundred dollars and NCR fame for killing the deathclaw mother and alpha male; Lewis gives stimpaks only to a Courier of level fifteen or more. (explicit canon) ⁴
• The quarry was project director Josh Sawyer's concept, designed by Jeff Husges, and Sawyer said sneaking past it is an intended solution rather than a glitch. (MineArchive inference) ¹
• The in-game quarry occupies the site of the real Sloan limestone quarry in Sloan, Nevada. (fandom interpretation) ^1,2

Sources

1. (primary canon) Quarry Junction — Fallout Wiki (Nukapedia), reproducing the game's location, character and quest data with dialogue transcribed in its references; read via a 2024-25 Wayback capture
2. (primary canon) Sloan — Fallout Wiki (Nukapedia), reproducing the game's location, character and quest data with dialogue transcribed in its references; read via a 2024-25 Wayback capture
3. (primary canon) Chomps Lewis — Fallout Wiki (Nukapedia), reproducing the game's location, character and quest data with dialogue transcribed in its references; read via a 2024-25 Wayback capture
4. (primary canon) Claws Out — Fallout Wiki (Nukapedia), reproducing the game's location, character and quest data with dialogue transcribed in its references; read via a 2024-25 Wayback capture

Record created: 9 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026