It also triggered a brief diamond prospecting craze in the western United States, in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado.
But Arnold and Slack wanted to keep the exact location a secret, so they led the group on a confusing four-day journey through the countryside.
The investors convinced the cousins to sell their interest for $660,000 ($16.8 million today) and formed the San Francisco and New York Mining and Commercial Company.
[3]: 36–37 The U.S. Attorney General, George H. Williams issued an opinion on August 31, 1872, specifically stating that the terms “valuable mineral deposits” included diamonds.
Geologist Clarence King who had led a survey team that recently completed a Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel had a chance meeting with Janin on a train.
Upon locating the site, they quickly concluded that it had been salted (as a geologist, King was aware that the various stones formed under different conditions and would never be found together in a single deposit), and notified investors.
[5] Further investigation showed Arnold and Slack bought cheap cast-off diamonds, refuse of gem cutting, in London and Amsterdam for $35,000 and scattered them to "salt" the ground.
Marc Hamilton played investor Asbury Harpending (a colorful character known for numerous escapades) in the 1955 episode "A Killing in Diamonds" of the syndicated western television series Death Valley Days.
Vaughn Taylor played Harpending in a 1965 episode of the same series, "Raid on the San Francisco Mint," which was hosted by Ronald Reagan, who was cast in the starring role of banker William Chapman Ralston.