Episode 1 of 1

Exposure of the Diamond Hoax

When
1872
Where
northwest Colorado
Part of
Clarence King exposes the diamond hoax in Wyoming

Clarence King and his crew tracked down the secret location in northwest Colorado, exposing the diamond deposit as a fraud.

King, an American geologist, investigated the claims made by prospectors Philip Arnold and John Slack. The pair had sold a non-existent diamond deposit to prominent businessmen. King's investigation revealed the site in northwest Colorado was fraudulent, debunking the hoax that had triggered a prospecting craze in the western United States.

Sources

  1. Clarence King Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-31
  2. Great Diamond Hoax Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-24

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.