The 'town founding' process is not limited to mining, but this type of development typically takes place where mineral wealth is located in a remote or undeveloped area.The company opens the site for exploitation by first, constructing transportation infrastructure to serve it, and later to establish residences for workers.Often the first structures to be built were log cabin storehouses, followed by kitchens, a lumber mill and smithies, management offices, and housing.Gradually, within a year or so, the camp would be developed as a community with a variety of housing types, including boardinghouses for transients and new hires.For the wives and families who joined the miners in such a community, the company store was perhaps "the most essential structure in the town...".