America: The Story of Us (Part 8: Boom)

The United States of America was built on hardship, sacrifice, and discovery. In 2010, the history channel have created this 12-part docu-series where it talks about many of those hardships, sacrifices, and discoveries.

This is part 8 of this 12 part wiki series about the History Channel's docu-series. In this part, we will talk about how America became one of the richest nations on Earth, and some of the unexpected things that went along with it.

## Boom

### Discovery of Oil

The Episode begins in Texas where a major discovery will take place.

A 3-man team are working in their makeshift oil derrick to try to find oil in an area which they call Spindletop and they would work hard for several days as they were getting paid for this work.

Things weren't going well for the men as they would find that the ground underneath them was fine sand which made it difficult for the derrick to smash through, they even hit a gas pocket with water as they barely survived. Since they had very little money they had to use whatever they had on hand, then they tried mud which worked.

Then, one day a rumble occurred and one of the men noticed that something was coming up from the ground. They made a breakthrough, they finally struck oil. After 2 years of drilling, they finally found what they've been searching for. Soon places like Spindletop would be pumping out oil which significantly brought down the price of oil, cheap enough to turn into gasoline. For the next few years, oil would be the fuel that modern machines would run on.

### Mass produced cars

The episode now goes to Detroit where the first mass produced cars would be made.

A man named Henry Ford has a revolutionary way to make cars, use low cost standardized parts, and create an entire workforce around these new parts.

Soon, cars which were only the wealthy can afford are now more practical thanks to not just Ford but also the Texas Oil Boom.

The episode now goes to Washington State to talk about some of the first mass produced cars being sold to people.

The problem with the first mass produced cars is that virtually everybody had a problem driving them because they never seen a machine such as the car before. Even the first car salesmen have little experience of driving cars. Most are used to a horse and buggy and would even shout "woah" when the car was going too fast for them. Still, with the first mass produced cars, people can move around more easily than they can with trains and walking, and no longer do they have to live close to where they work.

### The quest for Water

The episode now goes to Los Angeles where it has been growing rapidly since the down of the 20th century.

Los Angeles is one of the fastest growing cities in the early 20th century, movies were being first made here, and some wealthy people were moving to this city. By the 1910s builders built the famous Hollywoodland sign.

Here is where we talk about the quest for water. A man named William Mulholland was given a special task, find a water source that can supply Los Angeles with enough water. Los Angeles is on the edge of the desert, so water is hard to come by, though the mountains get a lot of rainfall, but it stays there.

After venturing out in the desert for several weeks, Mulholland and his team found a huge source of water; Owen's Valley which is enough to supply Los Angeles with water. He begins the project to get the water to the fast growing city.

Mulholland begins a 5 year project in 1908 where he would build an aqueduct from Owens River to the city, the project was complete in 1913 and then it was opened to the public. But not everybody was too happy about it, namely the local farmers who relied on the water from Owens Valley and even made attempts to blow up the aqueduct, but they would ultimately fail. Within just 2 decades, the lake and the river would be sucked dry forcing the city to come up with other ways to supply water.

### The race riots

The episode now goes to Chicago where a terrible riot would take place.

By the turn of the 20th century a lot of African-Americans were moving to the northern states where there were no Jim Crow Laws which officially segregated African-Americans from their white counterparts. So the Great Migration began, the African-Americans would move to mostly the northern cities such as New York, Detroit, and Chicago where they can find work in the factories there as they'll get equal pay as their white counterparts, but equal pay does not mean equal treatment. On a Chicago bean in the summer of 1919, a group of African-Americans were on a raft having fun, other African-Americans than began to wander over the white beach, but their white neighbors didn't exactly welcome them with open arms and told them to go back onto their their side of the beach.

Then the raft began to drift into the direction of the white beach and the whites began to throw rocks at them, at first the African-Americans on the raft thought they were just playing, but they weren't. Soon, one of the rocks hits fatally on one of the African-Americans on the raft.

The policeman on duty that day was called upon by the African-Americans to arrest they guy who threw the deadly rock, but he refuses and arrest one of the African-Americans instead. This is how the race riot of 1919 begins, it starts in Chicago where 38 people die, there would be other race riots in other major northern cities in the summer of 1919, in time it would be known as the Red Summer. This would crate African-American communities in these northern cities like Harlem in New York and the South Side in Chicago.

### Prohibition

The episode stays in Chicago where it'll talk about another hardship America goes through; Prohibition.

By the early 19th century, America's alcohol problem had reached it's peak as staunchly religious people were considering drinking alcohol as a moral sin, and even religious women protested their husbands or fathers getting drunk and beating them. So, in 1919 Congress passed the 18th Amendment which prohibited the purchasing and the consumption of alcohol. But this would create a series of problems.

People would run illegal alcohol production places, speakeasies would show up in major cities, and people who are responsibility of bringing the illegal alcohol would be outfitting cars with supercharged engines so they can run faster than those of the police or the FBI.

Organized crime was also on the rise in virtually every major cities, leading to crime bosses like the infamous Al Capone becoming rich at America's expense. On February 14, 1929 (Prohibition has been around for a decade) a group of gangsters and 2 other men dressed as police officers came and murdered a group of other gangsters who were operating under Capone's rival; George "Bugs" Moran, they killed all 7 of the gangsters. When detectives investigate, they suspect that Capone might have something to do with it (which he may have).

But because Capone was in Florida the day of the Massacre, the investigators couldn't get him on murder charges, so the investigators had to try harder to bring Capone to justice. Eventually, investigators would get him on 22 counts on Tax Evasion, and the nations most notorious gangster was brought to justice.

But just as the good times were rolling for America, good times would eventually come to an end when in October of 1929, the stock markets would crash, and send the nation into a great depression.

That'll do it for this part, in the next part we will talk about the hardships that America would go through which would include the great depression and other events. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.