Spud Hut Georgia Regional Distribution Center¶
The Spud Hut Georgia Regional Distribution Center (SHGRDC, "Shugrid") is the concrete processing plant and corporate office on the edge of Dahlonega, Georgia, hiding a secret ape-man gold-mining operation beneath it, and it exploded shortly after the arc ended.
| Type | Location |
| Aliases | the plant; Spud Hut Corporate plant; SHGRDC |
| Region | Dahlonega, Georgia |
| Affiliation | Spud Hut |
| Status | Exploded (as of Walkers 01) |
| First appearance | Appalachia 01 (mentioned); Appalachia 02 (cold open) |
Description¶
A big squat industrial concrete building, three or four stories tall. It has caged yellow lights, hard-hat workers, carts marked "Potato Testing," winding corridors of potato sacks and steam rooms, and steel cage-style cargo elevators with no floor indicator (Appalachia 02, Appalachia 08). Employees wear mandatory gray uniforms after a worker lost an arm in a machine, and about 40 trucks passed the team while they waited to get on the road one night (Appalachia 02). A plant worker at the trailer park, Ed's father, said the smell permeates so thoroughly that you "wake up in the middle of the night sweating potatoes."
The company's guarantee is potatoes "never touched by human hands," harvested with a special tool and a presentation on "the future of hygiene." A fishy smell is explained as a new special taco sauce (Appalachia 08).
Notable places within¶
- The cave fissure. In the woods behind the plant, a rocky fissure with an ancient pickaxe, the scene of the Appalachia 02 cold open, in which a gray-jumpsuited worker followed a baby-like sobbing and was attacked.
- Special Projects Level. About four stories underground; see also The Break Room (code 441).
- The sub-basement and mines. Kennel room, gear room, gold room and the mine shafts below; see Dahlonega Gold Mines.
- Parking garage. Where Jan Martense loaded a large animal crate into a red pickup in the cold open of Appalachia 09.
History of events there¶
Suspicion. The team first heard of the plant from the McDonald's counter kid, Eric, who had done a trial shift there (Appalachia 01). The worker said his coworker Aaron Richters went out for a smoke break and never came back (Appalachia 02). Andrew phoned the plant from the gold mine lobby payphone. After verifying his badge, the phone worker Stacy called back to say Aaron had not clocked out of his shift or shown up the next day, and offered to connect him to Jan, who runs the center (Appalachia 03). In Appalachia 04, a Covenant member said the river was getting a lot of runoff from the plant.
Corporate visit. The team arrived behind the sheriff's car, found an investigator chain-smoking in his car and a Fox 5 Atlanta van out front, and entered posing as reporters and a deputy. Receptionist Charlene led them to Jan, who took them to Special Projects (Appalachia 08).
The operation exposed. In the fight and aftermath the team learned from Clive that the sub-basement served the ape-man gold mine, and left via a tarp-covered ladder in the woods outside the plant (Appalachia 09).
After the arc. The finale, Appalachia 10, was an unrecorded session. It is known only from Walkers 01: the plant exploded shortly after Jan fled it. Kurt told Jan that gas had been piped in deliberately from an adjacent cavern, but kept the portal secret. Jan could not explain the explosion and named only the accountant Clyde Harvard as another insider.
Unrecorded session
Details of the finale come only from Kurt's interrogation of Jan in Walkers 01.
Inhabitants¶
Jan Martense (manager), Clive (animal handler), the secretary Charlene, Stacy at the phones, and the ape-men. See Jan's Conspiracy and Ape-Men.