The gold rush?

Question

back then in the goldrush what would happen if a railroad by passed a village. and why was mark twain mentiond in some of the articals ive read.

and why did many western towns become ghost towns?

im exited to know.

Answer 1

There's a little village to the west of here that did not want the railroad and so the railroad didn't come through that town and when through another.  The town that it did go through became Atlanta and one of the largest cities in the south.

There were no roads to speak of, only trails.    The railroad meant money, communications and access to goods coming and going.

Some western towns became ghost towns because the forces that fueled them dried up or disappeared.   That would be gold or silver or some other type of good that was mined out.    

Some towns hung on and hit economic hard times and gradually died out as the people that lived there got older.   No jobs, no income, kids moved to the city.     I think that most of the stories of ghost towns exist in the movies.