Episode Details

THE GREAT DIAMOND HOAX OF 1872

What if you traveled hundreds of miles into the American West, discovered genuine diamonds with your own hands, and still got scammed?

In 1872, Philip Arnold and John Slack convinced some of California's wealthiest businessmen that they had discovered an enormous diamond field. Their evidence was convincing. They had real gemstones, a secret location, and a mining engineer who personally inspected the site.

But the entire discovery was a carefully constructed fraud.

The two prospectors had purchased genuine diamonds and other gemstones, buried them in remote Western terrain, and guided investors directly to the planted treasure. Even Charles Lewis Tiffany examined the gemstones as the investors prepared for what they believed would be an extraordinary mining fortune.

Then geologist Clarence King arrived.

A strange pattern involving gemstones, disturbed anthills, and an empty trench exposed what everyone else had missed. The diamonds were real, but the supposed mineral deposit was not.

In this episode, Matt and Megh uncover:

• How two prospectors convinced wealthy investors they had discovered an American diamond field.
• Why genuine gemstones made the deception so convincing.
• How the investors unknowingly financed the evidence used to fool them.
• Why the Tiffany appraisal and mining inspection failed to establish the truth.
• How Clarence King and his team exposed the fraud.
• What happened to the men behind the Great Diamond Hoax.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars changed hands, and an even larger proposed stock offering was stopped before it could move forward.

The diamonds were real. The field was real. The fortune was not.

ABOUT YORE TOWN

Yore Town explores the strange, dark, and unbelievable true stories of real places. Join Matt and Megh as they uncover the history hiding behind extraordinary locations, forgotten events, and stories that sound too unbelievable to be true.

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QUESTION OF THE WEEK

If you personally found diamonds in the ground and an expert confirmed they were genuine, would you have invested your money?

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