The Great Diamond Hoax of 1872

The tristate region of Wyoming-Colorado and Utah showing locations of some known
diamond deposits, anthill garnets, Skinwalker Ranch and Diamond Peak (Google Earth). 

It seems to me that Mark Twain hit it on the head with his description -

"Politicians are a lot like diapers. They should be changed frequently, and for the same reasons".

Typically, I get distracted when I think of politicians - some of the worse evil ever invented. And, the Great Diamond Hoax of 1872, brought in thoughts of crooked politicians. But this time, crooks successfully scammed some politicians (and others) back in 1871 and 1872. 

Map compiled by the author of the diamond localities and anomalies of the tristate region.

Well, on to diamonds! My introduction to diamond geology occurred in the mid to late 1970s, when I accepted a position as a research geologist with the Wyoming Geological Survey located at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. I was already interested in a group of diamond deposits that were found in the Colorado-Wyoming State Line district in 1975, when a serpentinized peridotite nodule was collected from a Wyoming kimberlite by Dr. McCallum and Chuck Mabarak at CSU in Ft. Collins, and sent to the US Geological Survey in Denver for thin section studies, when it was accidentally discovered that the nodule, collected from a kimberlite pipe, contained some tiny, microscopic minerals that were harder than carborundum. A carborundum wheel was used to grind and polish the surface of the nodule during preparation and the wheel received several scratches! One of the few terrestral minerals known to be harder than carborundum is diamond. So, after dissolving the hard rock fragment in hydrofluoric acid, a couple of micro diamonds were identified. 

Some years later, bulk sample tests and mines in the area recovered larger diamonds including both industrial and gem-quality diamonds. The discoveries attracted top diamond geologists around the world, as well as the top diamond companies. After an untold number of diamonds were produced in Colorado and Wyoming, everyone packed up and moved to Canada, a region with no roads, too much ice (Al Gore would love it), and some rich diamond pipes.

Map from Hausel and others, 1997, 1999, showing location of 
the Cedar Mountain lamprophyres at Cedar Mountain, and
diamond indicator anomalies in the Greater Green River basin
extending into the Unita Mountains of Utah. 

I was charged with the task of mapping the State Line diamond district, searching for additional diamond deposits, and later mapping the Iron Mountain kimberlite district, the Indian Guide kimberlite district, the Leucite Hills lamproite district, and research with others at the Cedar Mountain north of the Uinta Mountains, where a diamondiferous lamprophyre was identified in southwestern Wyoming. And sometime during my diamond projects, which spread out across the US, a geologist from the US Geological Survey, Dr. Lowell Hilpert, stopped in my office to discuss a possible cooperative investigation on the geology and history of the Great Diamond Hoax of 1872. This piece of history, involved a couple of prospectors from San Francisco (seems like there are a lot of scam artists who come from that area) who 'salted' an area in Colorado with diamonds to attract a bunch of wealthy investors. So, Dr. Hilpert found the location of the diamond hoax (which had been lost for a hundred years), and low and behold, it was sitting right along the northern flank of Diamond Peak in Colorado (but there are two diamond peaks!). Well the correct one lies in northwestern Colorado near the Utah-Wyoming border along the flank of Cold Spring Mountain (40°52'48"N; 108°52'45"W) near Browns Park (40°48'56"N; 108°57'34"W), 55 miles northeast of Blind Frog Ranch, Utah (40°33'39"N; 109°49'33"W), and 70 miles northeast of the UFO space portal at Skinwaker Ranch, Utah (40°15'27"N; 109°53'36"W).

If you decide to visit the Great Diamond Hoax site, it is in the middle of nowhere in Colorado, so keep an eye out for scorpions, politicians, rattlesnakes, mountain lion, and UFOs. Beside to take your aluminum foil hat.