Real Life History
The lighthouse in Fallout 3 Point Lookout State Park is located in St. Mary's County, Maryland. In 1612, Captain John Smith first explored the peninsula, and the first governor of Maryland, Leonard Calvert, built his manor there. The British attacked Point Lookout during the War of 1812 and the Revolutionary War.
Point Lookout was mostly turned into a POW camp during the American Civil War to hold Confederate troops. About 4,000 people died in the camp, and the place was so cramped that there was often well over a dozen people to a tent.
Today, Point Lookout is a state park and it is believed to be haunted.
Lovecraft Connection
Point Lookout in Fallout 3 is no doubt inspired by the works of American horror writer
H.P. Lovecraft. Much of Lovecraft's work takes place in rural, North-East American towns, and Point Lookout is in line with that convention, taking place in rural Maryland. Other features of Point Lookout are Lovecraftian as well. Some of these are: strange cults, eerie swamps, deformed locals, ocean dwellers, decrepit buildings and mysterious ancient texts.
One quest in Point Lookout is particularly Lovecraftian: The Dark Heart of Blackhall. In this quest an old man named Obadiah Blackhall asks you to retrieve an old family book, the Krivbeknih. This book is an obvious reference to the
Necronomicon, a mysterious text mentioned in a number of Lovecraft's tales. This reference is made even more obvious by a possible conclusion to the quest. If they player chooses to destroy the book they can take it to an altar inside the Dunwich Building in the
Capital Wasteland. "The Dunwich Horror" is a classic H.P. Lovecraft story.
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