Charles Watson Boise

Born in Lakota, North Dakota on November 9, 1884, his family soon moved to Hope where he spent his formative years.

[1] He gained employment with Forminière in the Belgian Congo in 1911, directing the exploration, mining and research operations at the company's Kasai diamond fields.

[1] In 1920 he made the first investigation of the diamond fields of the Gold Coast which led to the founding of the Consolidated African Selection Trust.

He was also involved with opening the diamond fields in Sierra Leone and the exploration of Northern Rhodesia for copper, which resulted in the creation of the Rhodesian Selection Trust.

[3] In 1926 he applied for a British patent (with W. R. Degenhardt) for a machine that could disintegrate clay and mix sand, cement and other materials.

The "Nutcracker Man" skull discovered by Mary Leakey and of a species that was named for Boise