History Main / Boomtown

* ''Film/{{Golden Balls|1993}}'': Early [[TheNineties '90s]] Benidorm (in [[UsefulNotes/TheShiningAutonomousCommunitiesOfEspana Alicante]], Southern UsefulNotes/{{Spain}}) is a booming city, and the protagonist (Creator/JavierBardem) sees a huge opportunity for his gargantuan real estate project.

* Constantinople (now Istanbul) sprang up just about overnight when Constantine decided to make it the new capitol of the empire.
* [[http://theblueprint.typepad.com/theblueprint/images/dubai1990_2003_1.jpg Dubai]] is the most famous of the many examples on the Persian Gulf. They suddenly expanded thanks to the discovery of oil in the early 20th century, which attracted multinational expatriates to settle (the native population mostly stays unchanged). It's kind of uncanny to see how many dying desert port towns sustained only by prickly pearling trade got suddenly transformed into futuristic [[SkyscraperCity Skyscraper Cities]] virtually overnight.

* Tombstone was a boom town around the time of Wyatt Earp, which is covered in many movies.
* St. Petersburg is a subversion, since it was built over the course of several years; on the other hand, as soon as it became the capital, it was filled with many more people than it could support, including many, many construction workers.

* Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan, while not a hamlet in anyway beforehand (it was a port town for Western India), ''exploded'' in both population and importance after Pakistan's independence. Its 1947 population of just under 500,000 kept doubling every ten years: the biggest jump would be from 1998 to 2010, which went from 9 million to ''22 million''. The culprit for this was the population movement of Muslims of the Indian subcontinent towards Pakistan, which mostly ended only a couple of years after [[UsefulNotes/ThePartitionOfIndia the Partition]], followed by urbanization for hopefuls of the countryside, hence the sudden swelling. It also made the city the most cosmopolitan of all, since the new immigrants came from various backgrounds and cultures, only united by a single religion.
* Shenzhen, China is probably the uber example. 30 years ago there was almost nothing there. Not a city, not a town, barely a fishing village. Today it's got 7 million people, is the third largest city in the entire country and, quite possibly, the richest. How, you ask? Magic, of course!. The magic of ChummyCommies being just on the mainland side of Hong Kong when China decided to open up as well as a pet project of the premier.

* The advent of hydraulic fracturing led to the oil boom in places like North Dakota. Towns like Williston have become modern-day boom towns, and the suddenness of the boom [[http://www.businessinsider.com/williston-north-dakota-most-expensive-rents-2014-2 has strained infrastructure and even made rents rise]].

* Berlin went from four hamlets on the outskirts of the residence of Brandenburg/Prussia to the capital of one of the biggest industrial and military powers in Europe. On the eve of World War II it had four million inhabitants. After reunification Potsdamer Platz (which had been too close to the wall to build anything of use during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar era) became the biggest building site in Europe.

* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}: In ''[[Recap/TintinTintinInAmerica Tintin in America]]'', the discovery of oil in a piece of InjunCountry leads to its overnight conversion into a bustling small city (the Indians are forced to leave within an hour by the army at bayonet-point). The next morning, Tintin finds himself the only person in the city still wearing his cowboy outfit, and receives a chiding from a police officer who tells him to put on something proper.

Often, the growth of the town will attract undesirable elements--rogues, outlaws, and [[ConMan scammers]]-- leading to fights and crime and the need for law enforcement to clean it up. Even before a badge-wearing Sherrif shows up, some hero of moral fiber, possibly TheDrifter, will stand up to the bad guys. Certainly, any boom town is likely to be an {{Adventure Town|s}}.

* These are common in ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'', and will spring up anywhere that [[{{Unobtainium}} ghost rock]] is discovered. Of particular note is Gomorra in the Great Maze: the setting for the ''Doomtown'' CollectibleCardGame, and later adapted into the tabletop game in the source book ''Doomtown or Bust!''

* Like all Western tropes, it was parodied in ComicBook/LuckyLuke, where the title character was more or less forcibly put into the law-enforcing position. A patch of desert one day becomes a little town the next, with various incidents: a man going to sleep on the ground and waking up to find the place has become an expensive hotel whose owner is urging him to pay; clients waiting impatiently at the bar in a saloon while the walls are being built around them; customers (including a ''robber'') waiting impatiently for the local bank to finish being built and open; and, of course, houses built any old how directly against each other. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, as the year goes by, the area turns out to be dryer than expected, and the town eventually becomes a ghost town.]]

* In ''Franchise/{{Tintin}} in America'', the discovery of oil in a piece of InjunCountry leads to its overnight conversion into a bustling small city (the Indians are forced to leave within an hour by the army at bayonet-point). The next morning, Tintin finds himself the only person in the city still wearing his cowboy outfit, and receives a chiding from a police officer who tells him to put on something proper.
* ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'': When gold is discovered at the delta of the Yukon river, the only settlement in the area, the small logging camp of Dawson, explodes into a city with thousands of inhabitants virtually overnight, just as happened in real life. However, in this universe, the city has another claim to fame; this is where legendary adventurer and businessman Scrooge Mcduck struck it rich.

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/BoomTown1940'' has a boom town! And a real one, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkburnett,_Texas Burkburnett, Texas]]. The film opens in 1918 as the discovery of oil nearby has attracted thousands of people to what was once a tiny village, as happened in RealLife.
* ''Film/{{Golden Balls|1993}}'': Early [[TheNineties '90s]] Benidorm (in [[UsefulNotes/TheShiningAutonomousCommunitiesOfEspana Alicante]], Southern UsefulNotes/{{Spain}}) is a booming city, and the protagonist (Creator/JavierBardem) sees a huge opportunity for his gargantuan real estate project.

* The town in the western spoof ''Film/SupportYourLocalSheriff'' springs into existence almost overnight after the accidental discovery of a rich gold strike.
* No Name City in ''Film/PaintYourWagon''.
* Creede, Colorado, is this in ''Film/IShotJesseJames'', being right in the middle of a silver rush that is attracting thousands of [[{{Prospector}} prospectors]] to the area. While [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creede%2C_Colorado the city is real]] and did experience a silver rush, it didn't grow much after the rush and only has a population of around 300 people today.

* In ''A Town Like Alice'', the heroine turns a GhostTown into a Boom Town with an application of money, enterprise, and motivation.
* ''Literature/OneHundredYearsOfSolitude'': Macondo got trough this trope during its [[BananaRepublic Producer Town]] stage.
* The obscure Venezuelan novel ''Oficina Número 1'' takes place constrating the GhostTown in the prequel ''Casas Muertas''.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''
** Holy Wood in ''Literature/MovingPictures''. The buildings are described as being quite ramshackle, but have impressive frontages, essentially as if the whole town was a set.
** Various towns on the route of the new railway in ''Literature/RaisingSteam'' are said to be booming as a result in ''Mrs Bradshaw's Handbook'', although in some cases Mrs Bradshaw expresses regret that traditional industries have been abandoned in the process.
* The galaxy in the ''Literature/BookOfTheLer'' is littered with places ''called'' Boomtown, towns which invariably grew quickly, and then just lingered for centuries.

[[folder:Musical]]
* Rumson Creek in ''Theatre/PaintYourWagon'' becomes this when gold is discovered in the area. But when the gold dries up in the second act, the town becomes a DyingTown.
* The eponymous Mahagonny in ''Theatre/TheRiseAndFallOfTheCityOfMahagonny''
[[/folder]]

* The town of Township (yes, that's its name) from ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireII'' starts out as a ruined building that your friend Bow is forced to restore while he hides from the law. When the house gets appropriated by shamans, you hire a proper carpenter to build more buildings, while you recruit helpful people for the population. And it can fly, too. All over the course of one game.
* ''VideoGame/DragaliaLost'' has New Alberia, starting from the Halidom in Mistholt. The Halidom starts off in the game as a relic of an ancient fortress used by Euden's ancestor, King Alberius, in his war against the first incarnation of the Dyrenell Empire 300 years ago. Over time, it becomes one of the major world powers competing against the Empire with altars, dojos, mines, temples, circuses, eldritch libraries, as well as the varied adventurers and dragons that come from across the world and even [[IntercontinuityCrossover other dimensions]].

* Container City in ''VideoGame/{{Brink}}'' is this, a sprawling town built out of shipping containers, built when refugees arrived on The Ark by the boatload. Supposedly modeled on the favelas of Brazil.
* Newcastle in ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic IV'' can be turned from a ruin to the most advanced city on Xeen's Cloudside in a fingersnap, if you have the Megacredits to build it.
* The City of Luin becomes this in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia''. Well first it was a decent sized city, got burned down to the ground, and then you help restore it. Give enough money and you have giant statues of Sheena, Lloyd, and Raine.
* The ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'' series has a few abandoned encampments in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone repopulated by seasoned stalkers and other disorganized bunch of misfits because they need a place to sit, eat, drink, trade, and relax from the [[DeathWorld macabre expeditions]] they often have to undertake. This ends up turning into an inversion of a DyingTown as once empty shells of civilization due to the Chernobyl disaster have suddenly become little beacons of life to cater to the artifact-hunting and weapons trade; namely, instead of a thriving town dying out into a ghost town, the ghost towns become resettled.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTailFievelGoesWest'' the town of Green River is presented as a boom town on its way out, located near some gold mines that have since run dry. Although a large population of mice are brought there from New York, there doesn’t seem to be a very high human population, at least outside of the saloon.

Not to be confused with short-lived series ''Series/{{Boomtown}}'', or the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E11BoomTown "Boom Town"]].

* ''Film/BoomTown'' has a boom town! And a real one, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkburnett,_Texas Burkburnett, Texas]]. The film opens in 1918 as the discovery of oil nearby has attracted thousands of people to what was once a tiny village, as happened in RealLife.