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On Friday the 21st, my roommate and I chose to attend the history colloquium featuring Charles Vollan of SDSU. After a rough start involving a missing computer and a very unhelpful Union staff, we got the talk underway. Mr. Vollan it seems was working on his thesis involving the railroads and the people that came with them. He stated that many people had studied the people that worked the railroads themselves and the towns that were established after the rails had gone through, but no one had bothered to study the people that came before or with the railroads. Vollan decided to do just that along with the boom and bust towns that established along the railroad trying to figure out where the train would stop next.

Vollan decided to study just what type of people were establishing these so called rough and tumble towns. The rumors said that they were cities of sin where a man died every night. But what he found was that this was simply not true. Many of the people that established these tent towns were regular business folk just trying to make a living. Business people and families looking to support themselves. Because these towns seemed to be born over night, and sometimes died just as quickly, many towns didn't even bother to build proper buildings. Businesses simply ran out of tents; sometimes there would be a wooden facade to create the illusion of an established business, but when it came time to move on down the tracks, they were simple to dismantle. Not all the people left the rail side towns when the railroad moved on. Many people decided to stay on and try to keep the town alive.

Contrary to the rumors that theses were rough cities full of gun fights and outlaws, these were mostly peaceful towns. Laws were established soon after towns were established and the death toll was far below the rumored one man a night. Vollan pointed out that the towns were advertising out east for people to settle there, they wouldn't want rough, lawless people but families and businesses. Judging by the old newspapers, these rail towns were nothing to sneeze at with picnics and dances happening often enough to keep the social scene whirling.

I was very interested to learn about these railroad towns. The only previous knowledge that I had was from reading old western novels. They seemed to fall into the same old stereotype where there were ruffians and gunfights all the time. A man had to wear a six shooter and know how to draw quickly in order to survive. It was interesting to see that this wasn't the case.