What is boomtown how long did they last and what role did women play in them?

Answer 1

A boom town is a community which grows at an extraordinary rate because of the establishment of a new industry or the discovery of a new resource. The gold rushes in California and the Klondike gave rise to boom towns of this kind. Dawson City, in the Yukon, was a boom town arising from the Klondike gold rush. Within two years it sprang from nothing to a town of 40,000.

Frequently the boom is followed shortly by a bust, when the resource disappears or the industry fails or relocates. In Dawson City, within a year of reaching its maximum population, the populating plummeted from 40,000 to 8,000. Virginia City, Nevada, is another boom town which arose because of silver mining in the area and quickly attained a population of 15,000. Although the population dwindled slowly after the initial boom, the silver mine continued to provide work for people for some thirty years after the initial strike. Exactly how long a boom will last depends on the particular circumstances.

Boom towns start with transients but quickly start attracting people who intend to settle there. During the transient phase, the population is predominantly male, consisting of men undergoing a difficult lifestyle in the hope of making a quick buck. But as people settle in the community, the imbalance between men and women tends to even out over time.

And now about the women. Women were always present in boom towns in various capacities. In some cases they were part of the adventurous population that created the boom, whatever it was. In some cases they accompanied their husbands, brothers or fathers to keep house, cook, do laundry, etc. Not all people who were attracted to boom towns were participants in the specific boom activity. Businesses were set up quickly to service the needs of the population. Many of those business people were women acting on their own or assisting their male relatives. They sold the necessities of life such as food products, clothing, tools, boots. They provided bed and board. They worked in establishments that served food and liquor and female companionship. Women were always part of life in any community and always carried on in various primary and supportive roles.

Answer 2

A boomtown is a town that grows extremely rapidly in size and number of inhabitants as a result of its being in a region where economic activity grows explosively.

How long they last, varies. Established old cities like Liverpool, England, Johannesburg, Atlanta, Chigago, San Francisco and Denver - and many more - once were boomtowns and they still thrive. Others dwindled into insignificance or became ghost towns once the boom (for instance, gold digging) was over.

The role that women played differed depending on the kind of boom that was happening. Gold digging attracted more single men and the ladies in such towns often worked mostly in various forms of entertainment and comfort for these men. Other booms attracted more families and the role women played there were more traditional.