History Main / BoomTown

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Sometimes a town grows very rapidly, doubling in population or more in a very short time. In TheWildWest, this often happened around gold or silver strikes, or where water was discovered in an arid area. While the rapid expansion lasts, the community is considereda boom town.

Sometimes a town grows very rapidly, doubling in population or more in a very short time. In TheWildWest, this often happened around gold or silver strikes, or where water was discovered in an arid area. While the rapid expansion lasts, the community is this.

Boom towns tend to have a lot of new construction, much of it ramshackle, to house the new residents and businesses. In [[TheWestern Westerns]], most of the businesses will be saloons, gambling halls, and [[TheOldestProfession other entertainments]] designed to get the newfound wealth of the residents into the business owners' pockets. Churches and schools will come later, with the maturation of the town.

Often, the growth of the town will attract undesirable elements--rogues, outlaws, and 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 will stand up to the bad guys. Certainly, any boom town is likely to be an {{Adventure Town|s}}.

Since a boom town often relies on a single resource or attraction, if that dries up the town will start {{dying|Town}}, quite possibly becoming a GhostTown. This means the town leaders have a strong desire to protect that resource from any interference.

While associated with Westerns, the boom town can be used in modern day tith the resource being oil or power, rather than gold. As well, it transposes easily to a space setting, in which a planet or moon has a hastily-set up base to extract its resources.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheTwelveTasksOfAsterix''

Since a boom town often relies on a single resource or attraction, if that dries up the town will start {{dying|Town}}, quite possibly becoming a GhostTown. This means the town leaders have a string desire to protect that resource from any interference.

Boom towns tend to have a lot of new construction, much of it ramshackle, to house the new residents and businesses. In [[TheWestern Westerns]], most of the businesses will be saloons, gambling halls, and other entertainments designed to get the newfound wealth of the residents into the business owners' pocket. Churches and schools will come later, with the maturation of the town.

Often, the growth of the town will attract undesirable elements, leading to lawlessness and the need for law enforcement to clean it up. Certainly, any boom town is likely to be an {{Adventure Town|s}}.

Since a boom town often relies on a single resource or attraction, if that dries up the town will start {{dying|Town}}, quite possibly becoming a GhostTown.

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* ''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 [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters adventurers and dragons]] that come from across the world and even [[IntercontinuityCrossover other dimensions]].

* 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.

* I. ''Film/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.

* Everytime someone discovers huge amounts of gold in a remote area, GoldFever-induced people will build mining towns around, such in the Klondike in the 1890s, which created a big boom for Seattle, and the ones in California 50 years earlier.

* Everytime there's a GoldRush in a remote area, people will build mining towns around, such in the Klondike in the 1890s, which created a big boom for Seattle, and the ones in California 50 years earlier.

* The mining towns in the Klondike circa 1899.
** They also created a big boom for Seattle
** And the ones in California 50 years earlier.

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* The obscure Venezuelan novel ''Oficina Número 1'' takes place constrating the GhostTown in the prequel ''Casas Muertas''.
* Creator/LouisLAmour's novels:

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Sometimes a town grows very rapidly, doubling in population or more in a very short time. In TheWildWest, this often happened around gold or silver strikes, or where water was discovered in an arid area. While the rapid expansion lasts, the community is a BoomTown.

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* One of the most extreme examples is Jeuno in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI''. It's certainly longer in the time to grow, but you can't really complain when a small fishing village, in four years, became the economic center of an entire continent and ''an independent nation''.

* Rumson Creek in ''Theatre/PaintYourWagon''.
* The eponymous Mahagonny on ''Theatre/TheRiseAndFallOfTheCityOfMahagonny''

* 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.

** Holy Wood in ''Discworld/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 ''Discworld/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.

* 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 independence, 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.

* 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 being just on the mainland side of Hong Kong when China decided to open up as well as a pet project of the premier.

* In ''VideoGame/SunlessSkies'', the town of Lustrum was a pleasant little town until Hour mines were discovered within the Mother of Mountains on which is was built. Ever since, prospectors and alikes come en masse in hope of mining Hours or maybe even Years from the mountain and earn lots of money by doing so.

* 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 modelled on the favelas of Brazil.

* Holy Wood in the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/MovingPictures''.