Boomtown
A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although the term can also be applied to communities growing very rapidly for different reasons, such as a proximity to a major metropolitan area, huge construction project, or attractive climate.
First boomtowns
Early boomtowns, such as
Another typical boom town is
In the mid-19th century, boomtowns that were based on natural resources began to proliferate as companies and individuals discovered new mining prospects across the world. The
Attributes
Boomtowns are typically characterized as "overnight expansions" in both population and money, as people stream into the community for mining prospects, high-paying jobs, attractive amenities or climate, or other opportunities. Typically, newcomers are drawn by high salaries or the prospect of "striking it rich" in mining; meanwhile, numerous indirect businesses develop to cater to workers often eager to spend their large paychecks. Often, boomtowns are the site of both economic prosperity and social disruption, as the local culture and infrastructure, if any, struggles to accommodate the waves of new residents. General problems associated with this fast growth can include: doctor shortages, inadequate medical and/or educational facilities, housing shortages, sewage disposal problems, and a lack of recreational activities for new residents.[5]
The University of Denver separates problems associated with a mining-specific boomtown into three categories:[5][6]
- deteriorating quality of life, as growth in basic industry outruns the local service sector's ability to provide housing, health services, schooling, and retail
- declining industrial productivity in mining because of labor turnover, labor shortages, and declining productivity
- an underserving by the local service sector in goods and services because capital investment in this sector does not build up adequately
The initial increasing population in
Boomtowns are typically extremely dependent on the single activity or resource that is causing the boom (e.g., one or more nearby mines, mills, or resorts), and when the resources are depleted or the resource economy undergoes a "bust" (e.g., catastrophic resource price collapse), boomtowns can often decrease in size as fast as they initially grew. Sometimes, all or nearly the entire population can desert the town, resulting in a ghost town.
This can also take place on a planned basis. Since the late 20th century, mining companies have developed temporary communities to service a mine-site, building all the accommodation shops and services, using prefabricated housing or other buildings, making dormitories out of shipping containers, and removed all such structures as the resource was worked out.[citation needed]
Examples
This section needs additional citations for verification. (September 2017) |
Australia
- Victorian Gold Rush)
- Victorian Gold Rush)
- Bathurst (1850s Australian gold rushes)
- Victorian Gold Rush)
- Broken Hill (1880s silver–lead–zinc boom)
- Victorian Gold Rush)
- Charters Towers (1870s gold rush)
- Gold Coast (1980s–2000s due to internal Australian migration trends)
- Kalgoorlie (1890s gold rush)
- Victorian Gold Rushand associated speculative "land boom")
- Perth
Brazil
- Altamira, Pará
- Balsas, Maranhão
- Brasília, Federal District, development of capital
- Goiânia, Goiás
- Laranjal do Jari, Amapá
- Luís Eduardo Magalhães, Bahia
- Ouro Preto Gold Rush)
- Palmas, Tocantins
- Parauapebas, Pará
- Rondonópolis, Mato Grosso
- Serra Pelada District, Curionópolis, Pará (Serra Pelada Gold Rush)
- Sinop, Mato Grosso
- Sorriso, Mato Grosso
- Tucuruí, Pará
- São Paulo, São Paulo
Canada
- Calgary, Alberta (during the 1970s oil boom in the province of Alberta)
- Barrie, Ontario, residential development and factory retail outlets
- Brampton, Ontario, residential development and retail
- Dawson City, Yukon (Klondike Gold Rush)
- Edmonton, Alberta, railroad, cattle, residential development and retail
- Elliot Lake, Ontario
- Estevan, Saskatchewan
- Faro, Yukon
- Fisherville, British Columbia (gold rush boom town of 1864–1865)
- Barkerville, British Columbia
- Fort McMurray, Alberta, oil extraction
- Greater Sudbury, Ontario
- Halifax, Nova Scotia, as a port city during the First World War, prior to The Halifax Explosion
- Kingston, Ontario, construction of Rideau Canal, penitentiary, post-secondary education, knowledge and services and residential development
- Kirkland Lake, Ontario
- Mississauga, Ontario, bedroom community and transportation (Pearson International airport)
- Niagara Falls, Ontario, tourism, marriage conduction and tax-free retail
- Oil Springs, Ontario, oil drilling
- Ottawa, NCR, lumber/federal bureaucracy and high technology
- Petrolia, Ontario
- Sept-Îles, a city in the Côte-Nord region of eastern Québec, Canada
- Shawinigan, Quebec
- Sydney, Nova Scotia
- Vaughan, Ontario, residential development and retail
- Yellowknife, Northwest Territory, mining
United Kingdom
- Aberdeen, North Sea oil boom, known as the "oil capital of Europe"
- Barrow-in-Furness, late 19th and early 20th centuries as the world's largest steelworks and major shipyard
- Belfast, Northern Ireland, fastest-growing settlement in the British Isles in the 19th century due to industry and its port
- Consett,
- Jarrow,
- Leeds,
- Liverpool, industry and shipping, emigrants
- Manchester, rapid economic growth in the early 19th century
- Preston, Lancashire, the boomtown of the Industrial Revolution
- Winster, Derbyshire, England (17th century lead mining community)
United States
- Anderson, Indiana, automotive industry
- Atlanta, Georgia(rapidly rebuilt and became a commercial center in the years following the Civil War)
- Atlantic City, New Jersey resort boomtown, 1870–1940
- Basic City, Virginia, railroads and mining, 1880s–1900s
- Beaumont, Texas, oil
- Belleville, California, gold-mining boomtown, 1860–1870
- Birmingham, Alabama, coal and iron ore, 1880s
- Bodie, California
- Borger, Texas
- Buffalo, New York, shipping via Erie Canal, steel production, 1825–1890
- Burkburnett, Texas
- Butte, Montana, copper and other resources
- Caldwell, Kansas
- Cement, California, 1902 1927
- Central City, Colorado
- Chicago, Illinois, railroads, commodity resources, business
- Cincinnati, Ohio, trade, shipping
- Colstrip, Montana
- Columbia, California
- Cripple Creek, Colorado
- Deadwood, South Dakota
- Denver, Colorado
- Detroit, Michiganrise of the automobile industry, 1910–1950
- Dodge City, Kansas
- El Paso, Texas
- Elkhart, Indiana recreational vehicle and manufactured housing industry
- Ellsworth, Kansas
- Endicott, New York (shoe manufacturing boomtown, 1900s–1920s)[8]
- Trans-Alaska Pipeline
- Gary, Indiana, steel
- Gillette, Wyoming
- Goldfield, Nevada
- Graysonia, Arkansas
- Guthrie, Oklahoma, oil
- Hancock, Michigan
- Harrisburg, Illinois
- Holyoke, Massachusetts, paper, silk and wool textiles, 1860–1914
- Houghton, Michigan
- Humble, Texas
- Idaho City, Idaho, gold rush, 1860s
- Jeffrey City, Wyoming
- Kilgore, Texas
- La Paz, Arizona, gold-mining boomtown, 1862–1864
- Leadville, Colorado
- Minneapolis, MinnesotaLumber Industry 1852–1880
- Newport, Wisconsin, sprang up because of a bridge expected to be built across the Wisconsin River there
- New Bedford, Massachusetts, whaling
- Nome, Alaska
- Odessa, Texas, oil
- Ontario, Oregon, cannabis industry, beginning in the late 2010s[9]
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, steel, trade
- Pocatello, Idaho, railroad, 1870s–1920s
- Richland, Washington
- Rochester, New York, starting in the 1820s, with the opening of the Erie Canal
- Sacramento, California
- St. Joseph, Florida
- San Francisco, California, US settlement after winning Mexican War
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- San Luis, Arizona
- Seattle, Washington, became a prosperous port city during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897 subsequently after its great firewhich also brought in an influx of jobs and newcomers
- Sioux City, Iowa
- Sunland Park, New Mexico, cannabis industry, beginning in the early 2020s[9]
- Tombstone, Arizona
- Texarkana, TX/AR
- Virginia City, Nevada, silver-mining boomtown, 1860s
- Wenatchee, Washington and other towns in the area are currently undergoing massive electrical infrastructure growth to support bitcoin mining due to the cheap local electricity[10]
- Wentzville, Missouri
- Williston, North Dakota, oil
Others
- Batam, Indonesia, free trade
- Carbonia, Italy
- Dubai, UAE - due to economic policies favoring zero income taxes, regulation-free banking, tax incentives, free trade, real estate investment, pro-Westerndiplomacy (sanctuary for international navy ships to dock at ports).
- Dublin, Ireland - due to catering to genealogical tourism of Americans descended from emigrés from previous centuries
- Dunedin, New Zealand due to the 1860s Gold Rush
- Bangalore, India– due to outsourcing of call centers and the IT industry
- Hyderabad, India– due to outsourcing of call centers and the IT industry
- New Town, Kolkata– due to growth of IT industry
- Johannesburg, South Africa - Gold/silver/diamond rush
- Karachi, Pakistan- manufacturing
- Kimberley, South Africa, diamonds and gold
- Leipzig, Germany[11][12]
- Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, industrialization due to metallurgic and brewing industries and their related supply chains
- Nizhnevartovsk, Russia, oil
- Novosibirsk, Russia, planned development as a scientific and industrial center; hosted evacuated population and industry during World War II
- Shenzhen, China
See also
References
- ^ Brooks, Ann; Haworth, Bryan (1993). Boom town Manchester 1800–1850. Manchester: Portico Library.
- ^ Triest und die neue Seidenstraße
- ^ Triest– ungelöstes Hafenproblem
- ^ "Die ÖBB und der Hafen Triest verstärken Zusammenarbeit" In: Wiener Zeitung 18.03.2019.
- ^ a b "No. 2, Controlling Boomtown Development". Case Studies on Energy Impacts. 1976.
- ^ Duff, Mary K.; Gilmore, John S. (1975). Boomtown Growth Management. The University of Denver Research Institute.
- ^ a b Weller, Richard (2009). Boomtown 2050.
- ISBN 978-0738513065. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
- ^ a b Goodman, J. David (7 January 2024). "Marijuana Buyers From Texas Fuel a 'Little Amsterdam' in New Mexico". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 7 January 2024. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
- ^ Roberts, Paul (March 2018). "This Is What Happens When Bitcoin Miners Take Over Your Town". Politico. Archived from the original on 9 March 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
- ^ "Boomtown Leipzig – Der neue Hype im Osten". ARTE Info. Archived from the original on 2015-08-26.
- ^ Immobilien, Dima (15 April 2016). "Boomtown Leipzig– Immobilienmarkt explodiert– Dima Immobilien". dima-immobilien.de. Archived from the original on 2018-05-10.
- ISSN 0099-0329.
Contemporaries never tired of calling Roubaix an "American city," because of its raw, fast-growing character, or of referring to Roubaix and its sister cities of Lille and Tourcoing as the "French Manchester."
- ISBN 978-0199562732. Archivedfrom the original on October 4, 2015. Retrieved 2015-10-01.
Roubaix was another new town, originally a craft village, whose many textile mills attracted a population of 100,000 and generated massive social and environmental problems.
External links
Boom towns are usually established in 5-12 years