MineArchiveThe Washington Diamond Mine
Fictional record. This page describes a mine from a fictional setting, not a real place. Information is based on the cited canon, with adaptations and interpretation distinguished where necessary. It is kept separate from the real MineArchive corpus — see Fictional.
| Setting | The Diamond as Big as the Ritz (F. Scott Fitzgerald) |
|---|---|
| Location | Beneath the Washington family's hidden mountain estate in the Montana Rockies, in what the story describes as the only five square miles of American territory never properly surveyed. |
| Type | Diamond mine (a single mountain of solid diamond) |
| Worked | Discovered by Fitz-Norman Culpepper Washington in 1866, shortly after he left the defeated Confederacy to ranch in the West – Sealed by Fitz-Norman's son Braddock Washington once the family judged their existing wealth sufficient; permanently destroyed rather than surrendered, in the story's present day |
| Extent | An entire mountain of solid diamond — described in the text as containing roughly as much diamond as all the rest of the world's known diamonds combined |
| Status | Researched |
Overview
A single mountain of solid diamond, discovered by chance in the Montana Rockies and mined in total secrecy for two generations by the Washington family in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1922 short story 'The Diamond as Big as the Ritz' — until the family destroys it rather than let the outside world learn what it is.
History
Fitz-Norman Culpepper Washington, a descendant of George Washington, left the defeated Confederacy in 1866 with a group of enslaved people still loyal to him and settled in the Montana Rockies to ranch. While hunting, he followed a squirrel that dropped a large, perfect diamond from its mouth, and traced it to a mountain that proved to be, in the story's own words, 'literally nothing else but solid diamond' — a deposit roughly equal in size to all the rest of the world's known diamonds combined. Recognising that mining and selling it openly would collapse the value of diamonds everywhere and expose the family to the outside world, Fitz-Norman brought in workers under the pretence of running a 'rhinestone mine', and sold the real diamonds abroad under assumed names, banking the proceeds in secret accounts worldwide. He maintained the family's isolation by bribing surveyors, altering official maps, running magnetic interference to confuse compasses, and even diverting a river. The enslaved people who had followed him were kept ignorant that the Confederacy had lost the war, and so never attempted to leave. By 1900 Fitz-Norman had extracted enough wealth to sustain the family for generations; his son Braddock Tarleton Washington later sealed the mine itself and converted much of the remaining fortune into radium, stored in bank vaults around the world. Braddock maintained the estate's secrecy far more ruthlessly than his father — young women invited to the estate as guests for his children were drugged and killed before they could leave, their families told they had died of scarlet fever, and airmen who strayed over the property were imprisoned in a pit and offered only permanent captivity or execution.
Workings
The story gives no detail of the mine's internal workings beyond the fact of its being worked as a diamond mine outwardly disguised as a 'rhinestone mine' — its interest is entirely in the mountain's nature and the secrecy built up around it, not the mechanics of extraction.
Closure
Discovered from the air by a government aircraft after an escaped tutor who had once been held on the estate revealed its existence. When military aeroplanes attacked, Braddock Washington triggered a hidden mechanism within the mountain rather than surrender it, detonating the entire diamond mountain and killing himself, his wife, his son Percy, and everyone else present.
What became of it
Destroyed within the story's own events — the diamond mountain no longer exists by the story's end, blown up by its own owner rather than let the outside world seize it.
Canon & adaptations
Based directly on Fitzgerald's original 1922 text; no significant adaptation exists to compare it against.
Recorded claims
Each claim is marked with its basis — explicit canon, MineArchive inference, adaptation only, or fandom interpretation — and attached to the source(s) below. Where tellings disagree, both are kept.
- Fitz-Norman Culpepper Washington discovered the diamond mountain in 1866 after following a squirrel that dropped a diamond from its mouth. (explicit canon) 1
- The mountain is described as being composed entirely of solid diamond, in quantity roughly equal to all the rest of the world's known diamonds combined. (explicit canon) 1
- The story never gives the mine or the mountain a proper name. (explicit canon) 1
- Workers were brought in under the pretence that it was a 'rhinestone mine', while the real diamonds were sold abroad in secret under assumed names. (explicit canon) 1
- The family maintained the estate's secrecy through bribery of surveyors, falsified maps, magnetic interference with compasses, diverting a river, and murdering visitors and captured airmen who might reveal its existence. (explicit canon) 1
- When the mine's location was finally discovered from the air, Braddock Washington destroyed the entire diamond mountain by detonating a hidden mechanism rather than surrender it, killing himself and his family in the process. (explicit canon) 1
Sources
- (primary canon) The Diamond as Big as the Ritz — full text — americanliterature.com (public-domain text of Fitzgerald's 1922 story)
Record created: 31 August 2026 · Last researched: 2 September 2026