In 1872, a pair of scheming prospectors sold a non-existent American diamond deposit to prominent businessmen with the promise of fame, fortune, and riches beyond their wildest dreams. From Arizona to Wyoming, thousands of miners and prospectors flocked to the western United States in search of diamond deposits, triggering one of the biggest--and briefest--diamond prospecting crazes in United States history. But the businessmen quickly realized they had been swindled when the few diamonds they found could not possibly have been naturally produced in sandy and rocky conditions. It was all one big hoax! In this fun, high-stakes nonfiction middle grade adventure by award-winning author Steve Sheinkin, learn how a pair of prospectors triggered the Great Diamond Hoax of 1872 and sparked the briefest diamond prospecting craze in western American history.
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