boomtowns

Gold rush cities

Boomtowns is the plural of boomtown—a town or city experiencing rapid growth, typically due to sudden economic opportunity.

Gold rushes, oil discoveries, and new industries create boomtowns: San Francisco was a boomtown during the 1849 gold rush.

The term implies explosive but potentially unsustainable expansion, as many boomtowns later became ghost towns when resources dried up.

goldRush

prospectors

Mineral deposit searchers

minersOre extractors
forty-niners1849 gold rush migrants
claimsStatements of truth

staking · panning · nuggets · motherlode · goldfield · placer · sluice · assay · ore · mining camp

frontier

pioneers

First to explore territory

settlersThose who establish homes
homesteadFamily farm and dwelling
outpostRemote military station

territory · wilderness · trading post · fort · wagon train · colonization · surveyor · expedition · prairie · trapper

expansion

sprawl

Extend in disorderly fashion

urbanizationPopulation shift toward cities
growthIncrease in size
developmentProgress toward maturity

construction · subdivision · annexation · zoning · infrastructure · housing · speculation · settlement · gentrification · land rush

prosperity

wealth

Abundance of valuable resources

affluenceAbundance of money
thrivingSucceeding vigorously
flourishingProspering vigorously

commerce · enterprise · trade · industry · riches · opportunity · fortune seekers · nouveau riche · merchants · speculation

bust

decline

Decrease or refuse

abandonedLeft behind completely
exodusMass departure from somewhere
depopulationLoss of inhabitants

collapse · shuttered · derelict · ruins · desolate · bankruptcy · unemployment · downturn · stagnation · foreclosure

Categories

1800s AmericaOregon Trail, Trail of Tears, transcontinental railroad, Civil War, Abraham Lincoln
American frontierfrontier, westward expansion, pioneers, homesteading, homesteads
Old Westcowboy, cowboys, cowgirl, sheriff, sheriffs
petroleumcrude oil, crude, petroleum, oil wells, oil fields
real estatehouse, home, apartment, property, sale
Wild Westcowboy, howdy, sheriff, giddyup, lawmen

Opposites

economic vitality and population trajectory

boomtownsghost towns

Depopulated former communities

dying towns · abandoned towns · abandoned settlements

pace of development

boomtownsbackwaters

Isolated, undeveloped areas

forgotten towns

Phrases

mining boomtownSettlement from ore discovery
boomtown historyStudy of fast-growing settlements

Family

Familiarity: Top 200,000
Profile: Timeless · Concrete · Everyday, not technical · Rated G