Final Jeopardy: California History (1-5-12)
The Final Jeopardy question (1/5/2012) in the category “California History” was:
Surname of the employer of James W. Marshall, who found gold in a stream near the Sacramento River in 1848.
5-day champion Dave Leach left ’em in the dust yesterday and returned today to soldier on. He needs to beat these two new players to hold on to that title: Amy Ludwig from Los Angeles, CA and Mark Rupp from Indianapolis, IN.
Amy found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Army Strong:” She had $3,000.
Dave had a $4,000 lead over her, but she chose to only risk $1,500. Too bad, because she got it RIGHT and then she got the $1,000 clue wrong!
It has an active-duty military force of about 1.2 million; its neighbor to the south about 680,000. show
Dave was in the lead with $9,200 by the end of the round, Amy was second with $4,500 and Mark was last with $600.
In Double Jeopardy, Dave found the first Daily Double in “Nickel & Dimed.” He had another runaway going on with $17,600. Dave was willing to part with $4,000 if he goofed up, much to our surprise, but hey– it’s his red wagon. He got it WRONG because he thought it was the Jefferson Memorial.
On a 2006 nickel this building looks basically the same as it always did, though the dome is a little sharper. show
Amy got the second Daily Double in “Highly Oedipal.” She had $9,700. Dave was down to a $3,500 lead at this point.
She decided to attempt to not quite close that gap with a $3,000 wager. She went with Trenton (the state capital, named after William Trent) and that was WRONG.
This revolutionary patriot’s son William stuck with the crown as royal governor of New Jersey. show
Dave went into Final Jeopardy with $19,200 today. Mark was next with $9,000 and Amy ended up last with $8,700, so they had a slim chance of winning if Dave had a sudden attack of greed– or none at all, if he didn’t.
TWO of the contestants got the right Final Jeopardy answer.
WHO IS SUTTER?
“It was in the first part of January, 1848, when the gold was discovered at Coloma, where I was then building a saw-mill. The contractor and builder of this mill was James W. Marshall, from New Jersey.” (Discovery of Gold in California – San Francisco Virtual Museum)
Amy knew the question was about her very own home state when she plunked down her $7,500 wager. So she was not in unfamiliar territory like she was with that NJ Daily Double. She got this one right and finished with $16,200.
Mark wrote down “Monteray” and bet $7,000 so he ended up last with $2,000.
Dave also got it right. He bet $800. Alex noted that Dave is only 1-5 for Final Jeopardy. His correct response today makes it 2-6. Adding an even $20,000 to his 6-day total brings that to $98,054. Go, Dave!
FYI: The picture shown goes to the Kindle edition of The California Diary Of Captain John Sutter, From 1838 Through The 1849 Gold Rush
Excerpts from Sutter’s diary are also available to read for free on the San Francisco Museum link.
