'Nothing but tar paper shacks'

Satellite settlements, which frequently bordered model company towns, were usually explained as havens for prostitutes, gamblers, bootleggers, and social misfits. A study of Steptoe City, Nevada, revealed more complex social and economic realities and suggested that the phenomenon was not unique to company towns. Such settlements could better be understood as special case manifestations of the shantytowns or “wrong side of the tracks” neighborhoods, which plagued most towns throughout America.