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Gold Rush 2276 Views
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Description:
There’s just something about gold that makes people do some pretty crazy things. What would you do to get your hands on some of that glittery goodness?
Transcript
- 00:08
The Gold Rush, a la Shmoop:
- 00:10
"There's gold in this thar video!"
- 00:13
It's 1849. Spring. Early morning. 187 pounds of dynamite rattle around in your
- 00:20
wagon as you bounce to the mine on unpaved roads.
- 00:24
A year ago, gold was first discovered in California by a guy named James Marshall.
Full Transcript
- 00:30
Word spread quickly, and people from all over the world travelled to central and northern
- 00:35
California. And it wasn't for the weather.
- 00:38
Well... not just for the weather. But gold prospecting wasn't the safest way
- 00:42
to make a quick buck... or even a million of them.
- 00:45
Any idea what 187 pounds of explosive can do to ya?
- 00:52
Many of the very first prospectors -- the "48ers" -- had made many years' wages
- 00:57
in a very short time... ...but the 49ers usually came up empty.
- 01:02
Yet just the chance of finding gold caused hundreds of thousands of people to abandon
- 01:06
their former lives and travel across the world. Just how desperate were people back then...
- 01:12
,,,to risk life and limb and everything they had...
- 01:15
... for a small chance of hitting the jackpot? What would you risk to make a million dollars?
- 01:20
An arm? A leg?
- 01:22
What about ten million... or a hundred million?
- 01:26
Nowadays, reality game shows push contestants
- 01:28
to their limits in exchange for big-money prizes.
- 01:31
How much money would get you to eat a bug, or live on a deserted island?
- 01:36
What if somebody promised you lots of money to take a locked suitcase on a plane to a
- 01:40
foreign country... would you do it?
- 01:44
Where do you draw the line? What would you do for life-changing money?
- 01:49
What sort of chance would you be willing to take?
- 01:52
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
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