World's Richest Acre Park inDowntown Kilgore, where the greatest concentration of oil wells in the world once stood inKilgore, Texas, United States
Aboomtown is acommunity that undergoes sudden and rapidpopulation andeconomic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such asgold,silver, oroil, although the term can also be applied to communities growing very rapidly for different reasons, such as a proximity to a majormetropolitan area, large infrastructure projects, or an attractive climate.
Early boomtowns, such asLeeds,Liverpool, andManchester, experienced a dramatic surge in population and economic activity during theIndustrial Revolution at the turn of the 19th century. In pre-industrialEngland these towns had been relative backwaters, compared to the more important market towns ofBristol,Norwich, andYork, but they soon became major urban and industrial centres. Although these boomtowns did not directly owe their sudden growth to the discovery of a local natural resource, the factories were set up there to take advantage of the excellentMidlands infrastructure and the availability of large seams of cheap coal for fuel.[1]
Another typical boom town isTrieste in Italy. In the 19th century the free port and the opening of theSuez Canal began an extremely strong economic development. At the beginning of the First World War, the former fishing village with a deep-water port, which used to be small but geographically centrally located, was the third largest city of theHabsburg monarchy. Due to the many new borders, World War II and the Cold War, the city was completely isolated, abandoned and shrank for a long time. The handling of goods in the port and property prices fell sharply. Only when the surrounding countries joined theEU did Trieste return to the economic center of Europe.[2][3][4]
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. TheCalifornia Gold Rush of theWestern United States stimulated numerous boomtowns in that period, as settlements seemed to spring up overnight in the river valleys, mountains, and deserts around what was thought to be valuable gold mining country. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, boomtowns calledmill towns would quickly arise due to sudden expansions in thetimber industry; they tended to last the decade or so it took toclearcut nearby forests. Modern-day examples of resource-generated boomtowns includeFort McMurray inCanada, as the extraction of nearbyoilsands requires a vast number of workers, andJohannesburg inSouth Africa, based on the gold and diamond trade.
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 andsocial disruption, as the localculture andinfrastructure, 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][6]
TheUniversity of Denver separates problems associated with a mining-specific boomtown into three categories:[5][7]
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 inPerth, Western Australia, Australia (considered to be a modern-day boomtown) gave rise to overcrowding of residential accommodation as well as squatter populations.[8] "The real future of Perth is not in Perth's hands but in Melbourne (and London) where Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton run their organizations", indicating that some boomtowns' growth and sustainability are controlled by an outside entity.[8]
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 aghost 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]
Wenatchee, Washington and other towns in the area are currently undergoing massive electrical infrastructure growth to supportbitcoin mining due to the cheap local electricity[11]
Dubai, UAE - due to economic policies favoring zero income taxes, regulation-free banking,tax incentives,free trade, real estate investment, pro-Western diplomacy (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
^Strikwerda, Carl (1984). "Regionalism and Internationalism: The Working-Class Movement in the Nord and the Belgian Connection, 1871–1914". In Sweets, John F. (ed.).Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Western Society for French History. Vol. 12. p. 221.hdl:2027/mdp.39015012965524.ISSN0099-0329.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."
^Clark, Peter (2009).European Cities and Towns: 400–2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 246.ISBN978-0199562732.Archived from the original on October 4, 2015. Retrieved2015-10-01.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.
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