A portrait of a scientist-explorer whose mountain-scaling, desert-crossing, river-fording, blizzard-surviving adventures helped create the new West of the nineteenth century. King in his youth was an icon of the new America: a man of both action and intellect, who combined science and adventure with romanticism and charm. He went west in 1863 at age 21 as a geologist-explorer. During the next decade he scaled the Sierra Nevada, published a book now considered an adventure classic, initiated a groundbreaking land survey, and ultimately uncovered one of the greatest frauds of the century--the Great Diamond Hoax--making him an international celebrity at a time when there were few. The book also provides the bigger picture of the West at this time, showing the ways in which the terrain was measured and charted and mastered, and how science, politics, and business began to intersect and influence one another during this era.--From publisher description.