The California Story...

...in all of its depressing detail:

But this was no ordinary gold rush; it was alchemy, with the developers turning piles of concrete, glass and steel into gold as if by magic.

This boom was great for state finances as taxes levied on the new buildings and on the tens of thousands of construction workers arriving in the state flooded in. But Stockton's newfound prosperity was just a flash in the pan. All too quickly the city became vastly overdeveloped, with so many empty houses and blocks of flats that the place started to feel like a ghost town.