A visit to one of Arkansas state parks could prove a gem of an idea.
Crater of Diamonds State Park, located in the southwest corner of Arkansas in an area of huge geological diversity, allows guests to search for diamonds by purchasing a diamond finding kit from the park’s Diamond Discovery Center – and the park says an average of one to two diamonds are found each day.
In fact, 548 diamonds have been registered by park guests in 2024, weighing more than 82 carats.
One of the latest finds occurred on September 27 when a visitor found a 2.30-carat white diamond in the park’s 37.5-acre diamond search area.
This is the third diamond over two carats registered this year and the second-largest diamond registered in 2024.
The guest started out wet sifting, a searching method that involves washing dirt from diamond-bearing gravel through screens of graduated sizes in water before deciding to try surface searching.
However, many of the park’s largest diamonds are found on the surface.
“We periodically plow the search area to loosen the diamond-bearing soil and promote natural erosion,” Assistant Park Superintendent Waymon Cox said.
“As rain falls on the field, it washes away the dirt and uncovers heavy rocks, minerals and diamonds near the surface.”
While walking just west of the covered North Wash pavilion, the guest spotted something sparkling on top of the ground.
“From far away it shined so clearly,” they said. “I thought it might be a piece of trash or a bug; it was so much shinier than anything else out there.”
Once the guest walked over and picked it up, they quickly realized it was not a bug or a piece of trash, but a glimmering stone.
Park Interpreter Sarah Reap was at the rock and mineral identification counter when the finder brought their stone up and calmly laid it on the desk.
“Even after a few years of working here, I am still surprised when a finder pulls a large diamond out of their pocket so nonchalantly.” Reap said. Moments later, she confirmed it to be a diamond weighing over two carats.
“The silvery-white gem has a round, pitted surface and is about the size of a pencil eraser.
At first glance, the diamond appears brown, but closer inspection reveals numerous inclusions. These tiny imperfections affect how light passes through the diamond. “While the center looks dark brown, the outside of the diamond is clear white.
White diamonds are closest to a pure carbon crystal, while brown diamonds at the Crater of Diamonds State Park are caused by plastic deformation, a structural defect that causes them to appear brown throughout. Almost all natural diamonds have inclusions or blemishes that affect their appearance.”
Located on Arkansas Highway 301 in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, Crater of Diamonds State Park is one of the only places in the world where the public can search for real diamonds in their original volcanic source.
over 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed at the Crater of Diamonds since the first diamonds were discovered in 1906 by John Huddleston, a farmer who owned the land long before it became an Arkansas State Park in 1972.
