Railroad, mining company set stage for diamond fight

KELSEY LAKE — It isn’t the Gold Rush or the Johnson County Range Wars, but a lot of the elements of those fabled Old West disputes are the same. There are railroad tycoons and landowners, settlers and prospectors, even accusations of claim jumping.

But this time, the squabble isn’t over gold or livestock. It’s about diamonds.

And in true 20th-century fashion, the dispute will be settled not by gunfights or family feuds but by city lawyers in tasseled loafers arguing their clients’ case in U.S. District Court in Denver.

On Jan. 22, the Union Pacific Land Resources Corp. filed civil suit against Diamond…