Citizen Lazlo wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_Royale
My Freehold of choice in an apocalypse, zombie or otherwise.
That looks nice!... but no power generation or fortifications or easy transport of materials and few local raw materials.
Wait! I know why you picked it. Go to the google maps link on that wiki page and zoom into the bay on the south side of the island. The bottom half stays warm and green even when the rest of the island freezes over!
Seriously though that’s peachy if you want to make your own log cabin and live "off the land" but I don't want to rough it that much so I would go for the
Gavins Point hydroelectric dam. (satellite-map) There is a huge lake (some 31k surface acres) above the dam for fresh water and fish, a small lower lake and river also plentiful with fish. There is also a fish hatchery just across the lower lake as well as a small housing development just down river on the South Dakota side (and very fertile farm land) as well as a 18 hole golf course and visitor's "look out center" up on the bluffs on the Nebraska side. And all only about 5.5 miles (driving or on the river) from Yankton SD (my home town of about 14,000).
US Army CE info page Supplies energy (132MW) to about 65,000 homes. I'd jury rig up an electric fence that would fry zombies to further protect the dam and then send the rest out into the grid.
Then I'd go about establishing survivor colonies at the 5 up stream dams too. They are easily fortified and as they are almost bunker like to begin with and any character with electrical engineering and jury rig would be able to slap together a high volt, high amp, brain melting, electric fence.
Build some scaffolding to grow food hydroponically by those upper windows and toss a couple greenhouses on the roof along with chicken coops (for eggs) and rabbit hutches (for meat). You'd have produce and protein grown right inside/on top (and fished from either side). Add gardens on the slopes of the earthen parts of the dam. It could easily have furrows dug into it to retain water so long as a good strip of grass was left in between the rows of plants. Don't want to erode the dam and wash it away.
Tons of farm land close by on both the SD and NE sides and irrigation would not be an issue since the electric pumps would still run. Planting and harvest could still be done with tractors assuming enough diesel could be scavenged and transported each season. Eventually like all good things that will end too when the fuel runs out. So grow as much as you can in the first 3-4 years before the fuel runs out and store as much of your harvest as you can.
I'd probably also let the pigs in all the confinement's loose (there are many in the surrounding area) so as to have pork on the hoof (pigs are smart and resourceful enough that some are sure to survive and reproduce) for additional meat source to be hunted. Deer are nice for steaks, chislic, sausage, and jerky, but somehow deer bacon doesn't seam like a good idea...