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Even the original gold rush pickaxe guy Sam Brannan went broke, and he practically had a monopoly on pickaxes by buying up the entire supply: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Brannan

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TIL who Brannan Street in SF is named after.

Went broke "Following the divorce, he became a brewer and developed a problem with alcohol."

Well, if a divorce and drinking could make him go broke, he wasn't that wealthy, was he?

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