They started work on it in the middle of the next century. Then they had to stop (apparently, this was a bit of a tumultuous time for France). In 1800, construction began again but soon had to stop yet again. Finally, in 1857, the fort was complete. By this point, it had been more than 150 years since the fort had first been proposed. Technology had evolved over the course of all that time — in particular, weapons stationed elsewhere had longer ranges — and so the fort was now pointless.
Starting in the 1990s, however, the fort did find new life as the setting for a French game show. The show, and the fort, is called Fort Boyard, and you might well recognize the name, if you live in any of the dozens of countries where it’s a hit. The original French version has now been running continuously for over 30 years, which is pretty crazy — though not as crazy as the longevity of that show we were talking about just 90 seconds ago, The Simpsons.
One Guy Spent His Entire Life Tunneling Through a Mountain
William “Burro” Schmidt was a miner who lived in the Mojave at the start of the 20th century. He didn’t work in anyone else’s mine — no, he laid claim to his mines of his own, worked the land himself and carried the ore around using his two burros. The existing trail through the El Paso Mountains was too dangerous for his gold-laden beasts. So, Schmidt decided he’d tunnel through the mountains, all on his own, single-handedly.
He started in 1906. He had no vehicles helping him, just his pick, his hammer, his drill and a whole lot of dynamite. The following decades offered many dangers for him, often sticking him between tight rocks and cracking his skull with falling rocks. He kept at his task, digging more than 2,000 feet through his mountain, and in 1938, after more than 30 years, he was done.
By this point, the government had built a road that bypassed the mountain, rendering the tunnel redundant. And so, Schmidt never ended up using the tunnel he’d built.
Let’s not feel too sorry for Schmidt, though. It’s not like he was trapped in darkness for three continuous decades with no idea about this new road. The road completed in 1920, and Schmidt kept at his project anyway. When you’re a prospector, you just really, really enjoy digging.
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