Real-Life Fallout 4: Urban Historian Investigates

With the post-apocalyptic blockbuster title set for release, explorer Steve Duncan travelled across the state to unearth icons of American industry before they crumble into dust or are developed and gentrified.

He said: “With Fallout 4 being released, I wanted to get under the skin of the Massachusetts we had forgotten about, to find these places lost in time that tell their own story, and that might have inspired the setting of the game."

Undertaking a 400 mile round trip from his home in New York, the 37-year-old visited the Strathmore Paper Mill in Turner Falls, Montague, and the Fall River Waterworks in Bristol County.

Captured in these stunning pictures and video, he uncovered giant steam engines, mammoth structures and even underground waterfalls that were the fabric of New England’s industrial revolution and now forgotten. 

His latest exploration comes just days before the eagerly anticipated release of post-apocalyptic video game Fallout 4, set in and around Boston, Massachusetts. 

Steve’s previous explorations include meeting the "mole people" of the abandoned New York subways and journeys around the labyrinth-like Paris Catacombs. 

He said: "In the late 19th century, America was an industrial powerhouse, and it laid the foundation for 20th century America. I see structures like the water works and I understand how 20th century America became a superpower.” 

Located in the village of Turners Falls - founded as an industrial community in 1868 on the banks of the Connecticut River - Strathmore Paper Mill was constructed in 1874 by the Keith Paper Company.

The mill operated until 1994 - but was severely damaged in an arson attack in 2007. 

Steve said, "Thousands of people worked here and it opened only 10 years after the first newspaper had been published on paper - before that it was on cotton rag.

"The history of Turners Falls is fascinating - Turner was Captain William Turner who was famous for having massacred Native Americans - it was seminal because it paved the way for European descendants to settle the land.

"What was most interesting was to see history in the making - and the winners of this battle write the history and on paper, and that's what they've been doing for the last 150 years."

Situated 150 miles down the highway the Fall River Waterworks sit on the mouth of the Taunton River in Bristol County. 

The Waterworks were constructed between 1872 and 1875 along the shore of the North Watuppa Pond as the city of Fall River struggled to keep up with the demand for water generated by a huge spike in population. 

Steve said: "When I go into a place like the Waterworks, it's all laid out so clearly. The first engines in there were steam engines, and there's a diesel engine on the other side and then there's an electrical engine - you can see the progression of time.

"They are abandoned, which is part of what makes them alien; they belong to a different time period, a different set of technologies. They are also apart from the urban life that we know today. I love that."

For Fallout 4, the game’s designers took inspiration from abandoned buildings across the state, incorporating them into the game to create an authentic feel to the post-apocalyptic world. 

"A ruin is just a piece of the past that's fallen into the present. When I look around and see these massive structures that are part of the landscape of America today, I see what America was 125 or 100 years ago” Steve said. 

"I think part of the reason the Fallout series has been so popular is for the same reason I love exploring the urban environment - people love that sense of adventure and discovery, having a world of their own to explore. It's also been modeled after real environments - that's an important part of it."

Fallout 4, the next generation of open-world gaming, launches on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on 10th November 2015. To pre-order visit www.game.co.uk/fallout