At one point, Adolph Sutro owned 1/12 of San Francisco's land.

First things first: the fantastically mutton-chopped Sutro was a German Jew who came to the American west during the Gold Rush. His company built tunnels for miners. Sutro became rich and started to buy up land.

Sutro's influence was so far-reaching that he became the mayor of San Francisco in 1894. His tenure wasn't exactly memorable or successful, but a number of locations in the city still bear his name.

Alright, let's do the math. San Francisco lies on 30,000 acres. 1/12 of that is 2,500. Today, an acre of San Francisco goes for about $400,000 (and that's without any buildings). This means that in today's money, Sutro's land holdings would total... exactly ONE BILLION DOLLARS.

So, Sutro's descendants must be worth a fortune, right? Not exactly. After his death, the family fought over the money, and the estate split up.

Let that be a lesson, JONJ heirs!