Western economic development into the twenties

The nineteenth-century West was the “Golden Age of American City-Building.†Railroads, homesteading and the craziest set of entrepreneurial city-builders have stereotyped this period. A few examples such as Denver, Wichita and Oklahoma State provide a feel of the era. Massive city-building provides support that it is an incredible element of our economic development history. But there is more. The more pejorative aspects of chamber-style economic development, what opponents label “boosterism,†is much in evidence; but, looking beyond boosterism, chambers built these cities every bit as much as their city-builders. The West is home to the “baby Big Cities†of the Pacific Coast, so descriptive tales are included of growth and economic development in San Francisco, Seattle and Portland with their port authorities and, of course, the “city that economic development built,†Los Angeles (with Frank Wiggins). Most of the West is owned by the federal government and so the onus for western infrastructure fell upon the feds. No infrastructure, no water, no energy, no growth, no urbanization, no economic development. The story of the West really begins with the roads, dams and railroads. But Pacific Coast cities also gave something back to economic development: a sophisticated strategy on how to get the feds to develop your city for you: Fortress California. We conclude with a tale of how the Pacific Coast competitive hierarchy duked it out for federal navy and air facilities long before WWII.