Man Gambles His Life Savings To Resurrect An American Ghost Town

Whenever someone dreams big and puts their money where their mouth is, they’re bound to hear most of the people in their lives call them crazy. The bigger the dream is, the harder it is to pursue. And when the sacrifices made to chase that dream increase, it becomes harder for those who don’t share it to see how a person’s ambitions could possibly be worth that risk.

And it’s true that sometimes, the critics are right, and people risk everything only to end up empty-handed. But it’s also easy to lose count of the people who ended up changing the world by chasing similar dreams. So while one man’s big gamble is already fascinating, time will tell whether it’s actually successful.

The fat hill

As SF Gate reported, enterprising prospectors back in the 1860s had long suspected California’s Inyo mountains held a wealth of valuable natural resources.

canyon bearing Cerro Gordo California

But while Mexican prospectors called one of those mountains Cerro Gordo — or “fat hill” — before they found anything, they would turn out to be right.