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A company town is a town or city in which all or almost all real estate, buildings (both residential and commercial), utilities, hospitals, small businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations, and other necessities or luxuries of life within its borders are owned by a single company. Company towns were formed by the transcontinental railroads, which bought tracts of land flanking their right-of-way before deciding where to site stations. Other traditional settings for company towns were where extractive industries — coal, metal mines, corporate timber — had purchased a monopoly franchise. Dam sites and war-industry camps founded other company towns.Typically, a company town will be isolated from neighbors and centered (figuratively, if not literally) around a large production factory such as a lumber or steelSteel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, with carbon being the primary alloying material. Carbon acts as a binding agent, locking the otherwise easily-moved iron atoms into a rigid lattice. Varying the amount of carbon and its distribution in mill or an automobileAn automobile usually called a car (an old word for carriage) or a truck is a wheeled vehicle that carries its own engine. Older terms include horseless carriage and motor car with "motor" referring to what is now usually called the engine. The act of ope plant; and the citizens of the town will either work in the factory, work in one of the smaller businesses, or be a family member of someone who does. The company may also operate parkFor the Korean family name Park, see Korean name. A park is any of a number of geographic features. Originally, the term referred to an area maintained as open space where residences, industry and farming were not allowed, often originally so that nobilits, host culturalThe word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). In general it refers to human activity; different definitions of culture reflect different theories for understanding, or criteria for valuing, human activity. events such as concertA concert comprises a performance, usually involving some degree of formality, and particularly a performance featuring music. A concert should not be confused with a concerto, which is an individual work of music. List of famous concerts Woodstock Musics, and so on. Needless to say, when the owning company cuts back or goes out of business, the economicEconomics is the social science studying how society uses its limited resources to meet desires and wants. Put otherwise, economics studies what, how and for whom society produces. This involves analyzing the production, distribution and consumption of go effect on the company town is devastating, and often fatal.
Company towns sometimes become regular publicPublic is of or pertaining to the people; belonging to the people; relating to, or affecting, a nation, state, or community; opposed to private; as, the public treasury. Public also refers to the general body of mankind, or of a nation, state, or communit cities and towns as they grow. Other times, a town may not officially be a company town, but it may be a town where the majority of citizens are employed by a single company, thus creating a similar situation to a company town (especially in regard to the town's economy).
See also: paternalism.
1 List of former and present company towns
See Company towns for an unannotated list
- Ajo, Arizona
- Alcoa, Tennessee, owned by Alcoa
- Chester, California
- Espanola, Ontario, owned by Domtar
- Peale, Pennsylvania (1883-1912), near where I-80 crosses the Clearfield/ Centre county border
- Playas, New Mexico
- Port Gamble, Washington , owned by Pope & Talbot
- Scotia, California , owned by the Pacific Lumber Company (PALCO)
- Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Bay Lake, Florida, and the Reedy Creek Improvement District located within Walt Disney World and owned by the Disney Corporation
- Springfield: the fictional setting of The Simpsons, owned by the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant
