A band of young Cherokee Argonauts led from Indian Territory by their New England schoolmaster discovered gold here in 1850, and the town was established in 1853 when Welsh miners erected the first stores. In its 1875 heyday, Cherokee had its own theatre, race track, and brewery, along with 2 churches, 3 lodges, 8 hotels, 17 saloons, and a population of more than 1,000. The first diamonds in the U.S. were discovered here in 1858, and hundreds have been found since, including one weighing 6 carats. Cherokee was also the site of the Spring Valley, described as the world's greatest hydraulic gold mine, a consolidation of smaller claims covering 26,000 acres with 100 miles of tunnel and canal, 9 miles of sluice box, 11 reservoirs, 18 monitors, a world-famous inverted flume, and the 40-mile Cherokee Strip to impound tailings. More than 300 men worked there day and night under brilliant arc lights, and gold production exceeded 15 million dollars. President Rutherford B. Hayes and General W. T. Sherman toured the workings in 1880. Among those who held interests here were Thomas Edison, W. R. Vanderbilt, and Vice President T. A. Hendricks. Notable pioneers included Louis Glass, mine secretary and telegraph agent from 1871 to 1889, who later became a director and vice president of Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co. in California, and Gardner F. Williams, mine superintendent from 1880 to 1884, who later went to South Africa and with Cecil Rhodes amalgamated the Kimberley Diamond Mines into DeBeers Consolidated, which he managed for 19 years.