Diamond Fever!: A True Crime Story in the Wild West

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.

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Published: 5/12/2026
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Size / Weight: 9.5 in H | 6.4 in W | 0.9 in T | 1 lb Wt
ISBN: 9781250265746


About the Author

Steve Sheinkin is an acclaimed author whose accolades include a Newbery Honor, three Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards, a Sibert Medal and honor, and three National Book Award finalist honors. His fast-paced, cinematic nonfiction histories include Impossible Escape , Fallout , Undefeated , Born to Fly , The Port Chicago 50 , and Bomb . Sheinkin lives in Saratoga Springs, New York, with his wife and two children. stevesheinkin.com

Jon Chad lives in Vermont with his wife and daughter. He is the illustrator of Science Comics: Solar System , and the author of Leo Geo , Science Comics: Volcanoes , Science Comics: The Periodic Table of Elements , and Pinball: A Graphic History of the Silver Ball . Jon Chad's newest graphic novel series, The Solvers , uses comics, and superhero action, to teach mathematics to young readers. jonchad.com