[00:00.00]Narrator:Listen to a conversation between a student, and an American History professor.[00:08.60]Karen:Professor Farrington? I have a quick question. Uh- about something you said in class yesterday? [00:17.90]Professor:Sure, Karen.[00:19.00]Karen:You mentioned that um, about how Park City in Utah went from a Boom Town in the 1800s to a Ghost town, and then became prosperous again.[00:29.80] I was - Well, that’s an interesting cycle, and well, maybe for my research paper, I…[00:36.80]Professor:Yeah that might make a good topic! Since similar things happened in other mining towns.[00:42.90]Karen:So, comparing them might be interesting? [00:45.90]Professor:Yup. Absolutely. [00:47.70]Karen:So what triggered the downward turn in Park City? [00:51.60]Professor:Well, in 1870, there were fewer than few hundred people living in the Park City Area. [00:59.00]After silver was discovered there, the population grew very quickly![01:04.30] I think it reached about..10,000? By 1900s. But, soon after that, the silver that was close to the surface had all been mined. [01:15.30]So they had to dig deeper and deeper. [01:18.00]Which reduced the profit margin, not-not just because it’s time consuming, but going deeper led to problems of flooding.[01:26.90] It’s time consuming and expensive to pump water out mud. [01:31.70]So, that was that was big thing! I think. I mean, there are other factors that contributed too. [01:39.50]Like, the recession and a stock market panic in 1907, if you do write about this, you have to get into that. [01:47.80]Karen:Okay! And it was.. what, tourism that brought it back up again? [01:53.20]Professor:Basically, yes. The ski industry kind of stopped and started about the same time. In the 1920s. [02:01.20]At first it was only a few folks hiking up to the top of the mountain and then skiing down, as the sport became popular, so did the mountains around Park City. [02:12.60]By the 1960s, it was a major ski resort, with thousands of skiers. [02:18.40]Karen:And the same with the other abandoned mining towns? [02:21.80]Professor:Well, some. But some became tourist attractions not because of skiing, but because people were interested in their history. [02:31.80]Um, one old mining town in the middle of the Californian desert, it’s called Bodie. [02:38.40]That’s now State park. It’s popular because the buildings have been preserved as they were in the 1940s. [02:46.00]Karen:Wow. So maybe I could choose a couple of towns that went through that whole cycle and talk about them in some depth, as a way of illustrating the general boom and bust phenomenon? [02:57.70]Maybe find some firsthand accounts? [03:01.20]Professor:Well, for this, yes - it’d better to go into some depth about specific towns. [03:07.00]Rather than talking about a lot of them in broad terms. And yeah![03:12.00] Definitely, give it a shot! But, you probably won’t be able to find many diaries or personal accounts. [03:20.00]Not many people who lived in mining towns could read or write. [03:24.50]Oh, and also, remember the impact of National Events. [03:28.10]Karen:Right. The local AND the national. Okay. Thanks!
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