I found this program on Netflix streaming movies. Its running time is 48 minutes with "breaks" where commercials could be inserted so it appears that it was made to run over a 1-hour TV time slot.
But viewing it on Netflix is without commercials, of course.
It examines an issue that most of us probably have wondered about, as we drive across the expanse of the USA and see the occasional ghost town. We may naturally wonder, "How did it come to be and why did it go bust?"
One of the subjects is Detroit, Michigan. It began to be a boom town in the early 20th century, due in large part of Henry Ford and the other car makers. Vintage video shows it to be a beautiful area with tourists, and some called it the Paris of the Americas. But now Detroit is fighting for its life, with large areas of formerly grand buildings and residences now abandoned and in ruins, all because of the ebb and flow of business.
Another is the Salton Sea area of California. This was an accidental sea (rather a large lake) in attempts to divert river flow for farmers, for roughly two years the area was flooded and resulted in the sea. For a while it boomed, tourists flocked there, businesses and residents grew, but eventually the realization kicked in, the sea is land-locked, it gets water but it is never flushed. Farm chemicals and salts continue to concentrate, oxygen levels go down, fish die, large birds eat them then they die, and now the smell alone keeps people away.
Others include the large shipyard within view of San Francisco, established in 1941 but now dilapidated and a ghost town. Another is a gold mining community in the California hills that eventually became one of many mining ghost towns. Perhaps most tragic is the town in NE Oklahoma that had mined lead and zinc, instrumental in winning two wars, but the contamination of the area now makes it unlivable.
It can be depressing to watch a film about all this but in fact this is the life cycle of boom areas, and you have to wonder how much longer our current thriving areas will continue to.
But viewing it on Netflix is without commercials, of course.
It examines an issue that most of us probably have wondered about, as we drive across the expanse of the USA and see the occasional ghost town. We may naturally wonder, "How did it come to be and why did it go bust?"
One of the subjects is Detroit, Michigan. It began to be a boom town in the early 20th century, due in large part of Henry Ford and the other car makers. Vintage video shows it to be a beautiful area with tourists, and some called it the Paris of the Americas. But now Detroit is fighting for its life, with large areas of formerly grand buildings and residences now abandoned and in ruins, all because of the ebb and flow of business.
Another is the Salton Sea area of California. This was an accidental sea (rather a large lake) in attempts to divert river flow for farmers, for roughly two years the area was flooded and resulted in the sea. For a while it boomed, tourists flocked there, businesses and residents grew, but eventually the realization kicked in, the sea is land-locked, it gets water but it is never flushed. Farm chemicals and salts continue to concentrate, oxygen levels go down, fish die, large birds eat them then they die, and now the smell alone keeps people away.
Others include the large shipyard within view of San Francisco, established in 1941 but now dilapidated and a ghost town. Another is a gold mining community in the California hills that eventually became one of many mining ghost towns. Perhaps most tragic is the town in NE Oklahoma that had mined lead and zinc, instrumental in winning two wars, but the contamination of the area now makes it unlivable.
It can be depressing to watch a film about all this but in fact this is the life cycle of boom areas, and you have to wonder how much longer our current thriving areas will continue to.
