(ominous music)
- [Narrator] This is Snailbrook, Texas,
a new planned community outside of Austin
that Elon Musk is building for employees
at his Tesla, SpaceX, and Boring companies.
And this is Starbase, a rocket development site
and another new Musk city with housing for SpaceX employees
located outside of Brownsville, Texas.
Recent construction at both of these sites
has led to speculation that Musk is building company towns.
- We think that this Big Brother like control
that's associated with company towns is un-American.
History shows that, that has been
a big part of American industrial history.
(crowd cheering)
- Hey.
- [Narrator] Here's why Musk might be
looking to the company town model
for his properties in Texas.
(gentle music)
- My wife and I bought this property about 10 years ago.
We originally came for the nature
and the privacy and the peacefulness.
- [Narrator] This is Chap Ambrose.
In 2021, Elon Musk's Boring Company
bought the 70-acre cow pasture
that sat below Ambrose's property.
- I am a fan of Elon Musk.
I think a lot of what he does is really cool and inspiring.
- [Narrator] Such a fan, in fact,
he even owns a remote-controlled cyber truck,
but Ambrose quickly soured on his new neighbors.
(truck rumbling)
- It's been a radical change since they moved in.
They really are building a shipyard
in the middle of a prairie.
- [Narrator] And that's not all they're building.
As first reported in the Wall Street Journal in March,
in meetings with landowners and real estate agents,
Musk and his employees describe a vision
of a Utopia along the Colorado River.
Here in Bastrop County,
approximately 45 minutes outside of Austin,
SpaceX is building a 500,000 square foot facility.
Across the street, Boring is building a new warehouse.
Snailbrook is already home to some Musk employees
who live in modular homes.
There's also a pool, an outdoor sports area, and a gym.
Plans suggest the site will eventually have 110 homes
and Boring plans to convert one into a Montessori school.
As of last year, Boring employees
could apply for a home with rents
starting at about $800 a month
for a two or three bedroom in Snailbrook.
The median rent in Bastrop is about $2,200 a month.
For his part, Ambrose welcomes the economic impact
that Snailbrook's residents will bring to the area.
His primary concern is how the development
could affect the local groundwater.
- If you sit out and watch the work they do,
they're not careful.
- [Narrator] Recently, Boring applied
to state environmental authorities
to discharge up to 140,000 gallons
of industrial wastewater a day into the Colorado River.
Since beginning construction,
Boring has received multiple violations
from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Ever since Musk's companies moved in next door,
Ambrose has been documenting the development.
- I'm concerned they're gonna continue
to break those permits.
I mean, they are moving so quick,
one week to the next it can be a radical difference.
- [Narrator] Musk tweeted that
the March Wall Street Journal article
that broke the news about Snailbrook was false,
but he has not specified what in the piece was incorrect.
Furthermore, the idea that Musk
would create his own town isn't far-fetched.
- Sometimes there's that new neighbor
that everyone can't stop talking about,
for better or for worse.
- [Narrator] In 2021, the billionaire announced
he was building the city of Starbase,
which Musk envisions becoming a major space port.
Starbase is being built on Boca Chica Village,
a seaside hamlet surrounded by a wildlife refuge.
Located about 25 miles outside
of the southeastern Texas city of Brownsville.
SpaceX has not officially incorporated Starbase,
but since 2012, the aerospace company
has been buying up the area's pre-existing homes
and turning them into employee housing.
Much like Snailbrook, Starbase's development
attracted scrutiny from residents
concerned that SpaceX's expansion
will come at a steep price to the local environment.
♪ You load 16 tons and what do you get? ♪
♪ Another day older and deeper in debt ♪
- [Narrator] In 1947, country singer Merle Travis
immortalized exploitative nature of company towns
in his song "16 tons"
about the life of a Kentucky coal miner.
♪ I owe my soul to the company store ♪
- People tend to think of about a town
where the company owns everything.
Where the company has built all the housing,
there's a company store
and many of these coal mining towns
people were not paid in American currency.
They're paid in company-issued money
that's really only good at the company store.
- [Narrator] Author, Hardy Green, has written extensively
about the history of company towns.
- There is no strict definition of a company town.
A company town, there's really
only one company that dominates.
But beyond that, there's a wide range.
Some towns are more restrictive, more exploitative
and others are more caring and paternalistic.
- [Narrator] The more exploitative company towns
like the one referred to in Travis' song
tended to be communities based around a single resource.
- Whole towns or extractive industry towns
tend to be a little bit like prison camps.
- [Narrator] Like Snailbrook and Starbase,
many of America's oldest and best known company towns
like Pullman, Illinois and Hershey, Pennsylvania
were created by wealthy industrialists
who envisioned idyllic communities for their employees.
- Utopian ideals have figured prominently
in a number of company towns.
- [Narrator] Milton Hershey built
his chocolate factory complex in rural Pennsylvania
to attract employees to what was then a remote location.
Hershey constructed a town.
- Workers were allowed to buy the housing.
They're fairly well paid.
The houses come with central heating and plumbing.
- [Narrator] But Milton Hershey's relationship
with his employees soured.
In 1937, Hershey's workers organized
the company's first labor union, and went on strike.
That's a common theme in the history of many company towns.
Like Hershey, Pullman, Illinois
was a paternalistic company town that had housing,
stores, a library and churches,
but Pullman like Hershey eventually ran into trouble.
In 1894, Pullman cut jobs and wages,
sparking a violent worker's strike.
- It started off being an experiment that
the founders thought would be a kind of paternalistic place,
but it didn't work out.
- [Narrator] According to Green,
Musk's towns somewhat resemble
the paternalistic company towns of old.
- Yeah, you could argue that Musk
is employing a kind of a throwback idea
of starting from scratch in an undeveloped area.
- [Narrator] An undeveloped area
that is being developed quickly
even as it is under the close watch of Chap Ambrose.
- We're not anti-growth, we're not anti-Elon,
but we are pro-clean water.
And unfortunately, those opposing forces
seem to be coming to head for some reason.
(ominous music)
- [Narrator] Whether Snailbrook or Starbase
will avoid the pitfalls of previous company towns
remains to be seen.
Neither have yet been incorporated,
so technically, neither exists in a legal sense,
but if Musk does decide to incorporate either town
that shouldn't be too difficult.
In Texas, as soon as a community has 201 residents
it can petition to incorporate.
(ominous music continues)