Ever been to the Herst Castle? Man built an entire damn Italian Villa on top of a hill with no roads, no utilities, miles from nowhere. Took each truck two days (with an overnight campout enroute) to get to the top with materials. Built an exotic animal preserve for his own private zoo.

After he died, his wealth was split among enough offspring that no one of them could afford the upkeep on it, and now two of them got along well enough to do it together. The place fell into disrepair and was nearly a ruin when it was turned into a state park.

After touring it, it's just amazing to think that someone got to that starting out from nothing. I guess hitting the largest copper mine in history didn't hurt. Nor did taking the profit from that and hitting the largest silver mine in history.