In the U.S., entire cities were founded by and for people with tuberculosis, including Pasadena, California, and Colorado Springs, Colorado. Southern California came to be known as especially salubrious, and tens of thousands of people relocated there—a movement of people rivaling the Gold Rush. These “lungers,” as they were known, settled in western towns and the sanatoria that sprung up within them. If patients survived, they often stayed in their new hometowns and began families, reshaping the geography of the United States.
