Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1902-01-20
FAMOUS DIAMOND sWINDLE.
Which Was Exposed by the Late Clar.
ence King, the GeoIogist.

Which Was Exposed by the Late Clar-
ence King, the GeoIogist.
One very notable and highly sensa-
tional result CT Mr.. Kings work on
the 10th parallel exploration, and one
which gave him much fame both in
this country and elsewhere, was his
startling discovery of the great swim
die in the ''salted" diamond fields of
Wyoming late in 1872. Early in that
year it had been noised abroad that a
great find of diamonds and other pre-
cious stones had been discovered
somewhere in the far west, presum-
ably in Arizona, although the precise
locality was most carefully concealed.
A large number of the gems, of unques-
tionably desirable value, had been car
ried from the alleged fields to San
Francisco and New York, where the
most influential capitalists, who had
been led to believe the favorable re-
ports thus far presented, had invested
large sums Of money in the purchase
f the ground said to be diamond bear
ing. and were preparing for the in
tended operation of the so-called
mines on a large scale, which would
soon have caused a rush of fortune
hunters and adventures comparable
to the California immigration in 40
and SO Through information gained
by one of his assistants it suddenly
came to Mr. Kings knowledge that
the locality of the alleged diamond
find was not in Arizona, but in Wy
oming, and really within the region
of his own field work of the 10th par
allel survey. Not then suspecting
fraud, but, on the contrary, having
good reason to regard as trustworthy
the favorable reports of one or more
well knwn engineers, who, shortly be-
fore, had visited the fields with the
leading promoters of the enterprise,
Mr.. King fastened to the designated
unearthing a swindle, but for the pur-
pose of studying the new diamond
field and making his official report ON
what then seemed to be a discovery of
great national Importance.
He set out promptly with two or
three assistants, and duly reached his
destination, following the trail with
out difficulty from a station of the
Union Pacific railroad in Wyoming
He soon found diamonds and rubies
in abundance, but his suspicious were
quickly aroused by the observation
that the plainly visible precious
stones lay directly upon the hard sur
face Of rock, where nature alone could
never have placed or left them, and
that none could be found in the earth
or on the underlying bedrock, where.
had the occurrence been genuine, the
inevitable laws of nature must have
carried them; with the further obser-
walton that the ant hills, built of small
pebbles mined by the ants, which were
found to bear rubies on their surfaces
or in penetrating holes (artifcally
made with small stick invariably
showed in close proximity the storm
worn footprints Of mankind, while
other ant hills, without such sign of
human tracks and hot pierced by any
artificial holes, were also without
rubies or precious stones of any sort
Thorough investigation, following the
lines indicated by these suspicious,
soon proved beyond any doubt that
some designing hand had "salted" the
ground with deliberate fraudulent in
tent.
This disclosure created a great SEN
sation in this country and in Europe,
whence evidence was soon forthcom-
ing that the stones used in the sailing
had been bought in large quantities at
London and Paris during the preced-
ing winter, presumably by the origi-
majors of the swindle. The practical
result of Mr.. Kings disclosure of the
facts in this case was one of inestim-
able value, possibly more in money
than the 10th parallel expedition. Had
the fraud remained undisclosed till the
following spring, large sums of money
would have been wasted in the costly
purchase of worthless property and in
fruitless prospecting. not only by cap
italists, but by thousands of disap-
pointed and ruined fortune seekers.
The leading and most active, even
>houoh wholly innocent, promoter of
the diamond mining enterprise, by no
means necessarily participant in the
original swindle or cognizant of the
fraud until disclosed by King. was a