okay I’m sorry if this has already been posted but now that Half Life 2: Episode 3′s summary has been released (look it up–I can’t link to it or this post won’t show up in the tags, thanks Tumblr), WE NOW HAVE A MORE PRECISE LOCATION FOR APERTURE!!!
Okay, so, we have the Borealis’s drydock here:
[screenshot of the Borealis’s dry dock in Old Aperture in Portal 2, courtesy of the Half-Life Wiki]
We also know that Aperture is located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (or UP):
[image of a newspaper clipping found in Old Aperture, reading “THE UP PIONEER PRESS: LOCAL ENTREPRENEUR BUYS SALT MINE – Cave Johnson to Bring Science, Industry to Upper Michigan,” courtesy of the Half-Life wiki]
(Upper Michigan always refers to the Upper Peninsula)
But… the UP is a big place, and there’s no known salt mines up there (personal headcanon: the salt mine was wiped off the map when Cave Johnson bought it). So where is Aperture?
We never knew… until now.
[screenshot from the official summary of Half Life 2: Episode 3, emphasizing “a dry-docked liner situated at the Aperture Science Research Base in Lake Huron,” courtesy of the valvetime forums]
The summary states that the Borealis was originally in a dry dock in Aperture’s research base in Lake Huron. Now, this could imply there was a separate research base, except…
[screenshot from the official summary of Half Life 2: Episode 3, emphasizing “the ship … would then travel instantaneously to any chosen destination … Unfortunately, the device had never been tested,” courtesy of the valvetime forums]
The Borealis’s transportation mechanism had never before been tested. Meaning that, yes, the aforementioned dry dock is indeed the one we see in Portal 2. Which means…
[map showing Michigan’s Lower and Upper Peninsulas, with the southeast coast of the UP circled, courtesy of Google Maps]
Aperture is somewhere along the southeast coast of the UP.
Now the question is… anyone know if there’s a wheat field around there?
