Diamond Mysteries From Meteor Crater

minerals-more than 50 kinds have been identified so far-including graphite, a form of carbon.

Scientists believe the graphite was transformed into diamonds by the great heat and pressure generated by the meteor's impact. The collision killed everything in a 2-mile radius, created pressure estimated at 20 million pounds per square inch and generated heat so great that parts of the meteor were vaporized and melted.

About half of the meteor, composed of iron, nickel and stone, was ejected from the crater in the form of large and small fragments. Other fragments that had separated from the main body of the meteor in its plunge through the Earth's atmosphere rained down on the surrounding area.

The very small, almost microscopic diamonds were first discovered inside fragments of meteorite iron. They were determined to be of industrial grade. Since they were embedded in the iron and could only be found by chance-most were struck by the metal saws of artisans engaged in cutting slabs from the fragments for later polishing and sale as curios-the diamonds were generally believed not worth the effort to extract them. Ironically, the iron was worth more than the diamonds. In the 1890s, Fred W. Volz ran a trading post and store, near where the Santa Fe Railroad tracks cross Canyon Diablo. Volz hired men and wagons to scour the area around Meteor Crater for iron meteorites. The trading post, whose ruins can still be seen beside the tracks, made almost $13,000 selling the iron to curio buyers.

Unfortunately, in his eagerness to corner the market on the meteorite iron, Volz shipped more than 5 tons of the rusty-looking, dark-red metal to both the East and West coasts and so saturated the market that the prices collapsed, making further iron collecting worthless.

It was during this time that Cannon, undoubtedly hearing about the diamonds in the meteorite fragments, began his solitary prowling of the rolling plains west of Winslow. Like others, Cannon believed that if there were tiny diamonds in the meteorites, there surely could be other, bigger diamonds to be found in the widely scattered impact debris.

Cannon was the object of much curiosity and speculation among Winslow residents and the wandering cowboys and hunters who ran into him. It was generally believed that he was looking for diamonds, because folks watching him from a distance saw him pick up the meteor fragments. He was very particular about which pieces he kept. After a careful examination, he threw most of them back down. Those he kept went into the panniers on his burros, which always followed at his heels, grazing contentedly as he worked haphazardly over the range. He avoided the heavier iron fragments, instead collecting the stony iron chunks - light-colored rocks laced with impact-melded lines of iron and nickel. Presumably he saw diamonds in the rocks he kept. Pounding them with a heavy hammer could smash these rocks. Parts too saturated with metal to be broken were discarded.

After pulverizing the rocks with his hammer, Cannon sifted through the rock dust and picked out the diamonds by hand. Diamonds, the hardest natural substance known, were not damaged by the pounding. A number of persons reported seeing Cannon hammering away at his finds. Sometimes the distant observers saw him seize something from the crushed rocks, hold it up between thumb and forefinger against the sun and squint at it. Then he would take a small leather bag from his pocket and slip his find into it. Piles of crushed rock littered Cannon's campsites, indicating that the real work of diamond-finding was done there.

Gladwell Richardson, whose extended family operated various trading posts on the Navajo Indian Reservation for several generations, remembered Cannon coming into the Richardson's wholesale house on the west side of Winslow many times prior to World War I. Richardson, a young schoolboy at the time, described Cannon as a small man about 5 feet 5 inches tall and slightly bent, maybe about 70 years old with a shaggy head of gray hair, a tobacco-stained beard and very pale blue eyes. Cannon hardly spoke at all during these visits, producing a list of supplies on a piece of brown wrapping paper. Richardson, who later became a prolific Western novelist and author of the acclaimed biography of his family, Navajo Trader, would carry the supplies out of the store and help Cannon load Them onto the tethered burros. Cannon would reward him with a nickel's worth of red striped candy. The prospector's supplies were the usual for those days-flour, lard, coffee, chewing tobacco, dried beans, sugar and salt. Sometimes he'd buy 30-30 rifle cartridges because, as nearly everyone did, he got his fresh meat shooting deer and pronghorn antelope. Cannon always paid in cash, taking bills from a thick wad of currency he carried. Richardson's uncle guessed that Cannon was carrying about $3,000 in cash, and he warned the old man that some outlaw might kill him for his money. Cannon, he said, merely grunted, never answering a word. Richardson claimed the most that Cannon ever said was when he left with his burros: "Wal, gotta hit the grit." Cannon liked to camp in the many small caves found in Canyon Diablo, a long, deep, sheer-walled chasm that runs south from the Little Colorado River. He changed caves often and made an effort to hide his tracks coming and going. Because no one knew where Cannon was selling his diamonds, word got around that he was hiding them in secret cave caches. Several people spied on the old man's camps out of curiosity, others out of greed. One man, George McCormick, tried to start up a conversation with Cannon, only to have the prospector pull a six-gun and wordlessly warn him away. McCormick, not to be intimidated, searched and found the cave where Cannon was living. When Cannon left to do more prospecting, McCormick climbed down to the camp and found a small bag of rough diamonds hidden under Cannon's bedroll. No thief, he replaced the gems, which he said were very small with the largest no bigger than a grain of rice. A short time later, McCormick saw two men tailing Cannon. He recognized both as former convicts who had served prison time for robbery. Feeling protective of Cannon, even though he was markedly unfriendly, McCormick waited until the two camped for the night and then sneaked up close and fired four rifle shots over their beds. The men fled in the dark, leaving all their camp gear. McCormick then sought out Cannon and told him what he had done, warning the old prospector to be careful. Cannon ignored him and never spoke so much as a word. Richardson said the last time he saw Cannon was in the fall of 1917, when Richardson and another boy were hunting rabbits along the Little Colorado River just east of Winslow. Cannon, on the other side of the river, was silent as always. Richardson left for school in another state, and when he returned in 1921 he asked his uncle if he had seen Cannon. The uncle said no, that Cannon hadn't been in the store for two years or more. With Cannon's disappearance, the stories of diamond caches grew; a number of treasure seekers searched for his caves in Canyon Diablo. Then, in August 1928, two cowboys who worked for the Pitchfork Ranch came into Winslow with an electrifying tale. While camped near Jacks Canyon about 10 miles south of Winslow, a man who had been shot three times staggered into the light of their campfire. As the unidentified man lay dying, he told the cowboys that he and his partner had found one of Cannon's diamond caches and that his traitor partner then shot him. Wounded, he crawled to his bedroll, grabbed his gun and killed his assailant. After the unidentified man died, the cowboys searched his body and found a buckskin bag half filled with rough diamonds.

The next morning they rode into Winslow and reported the shooting to the sheriff, who left to retrieve the body of the shooting victim. Searchers looked for the corpse of the partner, but failed to find it. Meanwhile the two cowboys took the stones to Black's Jewelry Store in Winslow for appraisal and were told they were flawless diamonds. Not waiting to testify before the coroner's jury, the delighted cowboys hopped a train to Los Angeles and never returned to Winslow. What the diamonds eventually sold for is a mystery.

In 1929 a man loading gravel from the bed of the Little Colorado found scattered human bones, some rotted clothing and a skull with two bullet holes in it. Deputies found an empty wallet nearby containing Cannon's photograph. Cannon, it is believed, was shot after failing to reveal where he had hidden his diamonds. No one was ever arrested for the murder.

In 1958 Richardson took over the operation of the Two Guns Trading Post at Canyon Diablo and U.S. Route 66, which his father had purchased in 1951 from Harry "Indian" Miller. The trading post, under Miller's management, catered to curious tourists and even had a zoo. One day a former employee of Miller happened by and told Richardson that Miller had found one of Cannon's diamond caches and had sold the gems for an unknown amount. According to the employee's story, a Navajo Indian showed Miller a handful of "quartz crystals" he had found in a cave in Canyon Diablo. Miller bought them for 10 cents each, asking the Indian where he had found them.

In 1958 Richardson took over the operation of the Two Guns Trading Post at Canyon Diablo and U.S. Route 66, which his father had purchased in 1951 from Harry "Indian" Miller. The trading post, under Miller's management, catered to curious tourists and even had a zoo. One day a former employee of Miller happened by and told Richardson that Miller had found one of Cannon's diamond caches and had sold the gems for an unknown amount. According to the employee's story, a Navajo Indian showed Miller a handful of "quartz crystals" he had found in a cave in Canyon Diablo. Miller bought them for 10 cents each, asking the Indian where he had found them.The next day Miller and the employee went to the site and found two small caves. Miller chose the larger cave to explore, while the employee crawled into the smaller cave, finding nothing. He then entered Miller's cave and saw him hastily pocketing some white stones. Asked what they were, Miller said they were just more quartz crystals. The employee found several white stones the size of a matchhead sticking to a piece of rotted leather that Miller had overlooked. Not believing Miller's story, he stuck them in his pocket and, when he returned to his home in Cincinnati, he took them to a jeweler who identified them as industrial-grade diamonds worth about $10 a piece.

Although Bob Thomas of Phoenix says he is always looking for diamonds in the rough. However, with the prices of meteorites soaring, he'd settle today for a hunk of space iron, with or without diamonds.

Two modern-day horsemen retrace the treaty ride of Lieutenant Sladen and General Howard MAKING PEACE WITH COCHISE