What were boomtowns and ghost towns? Any abandoned city, town, or village can be considered a ghost town. They usually also have visible remains, such as empty buildings. ... In the past, such towns—often called boomtowns—were settled and quickly came to life. People there built mines ...
Mining towns constituted, during their embryonic stage, fragile urban environments that could deteriorate rapidly into oblivion as 'ghost towns' or, through a slower, cumulative process, develop into stable towns. The 'tipping point' was difficult to gauge with certainty, and many once-prosperous ...