Some people like to play the lottery, but if you hope for a big payday and would rather walk around outside than scratch tickets, you need to plan a road trip to Arkansas.
Your destination: the aptly named Crater of Diamonds State Park, located in Murfreesboro, about an hour-long drive from Hot Springs. The drive from Little Rock is just 2 hours.
Crater of Diamonds State Park is one of the few places in the world where the public can search for diamonds — and keep or sell the ones they find.
Diamonds are relatively easy to find because the park has a 37-acre field that is actually the eroded surface of a diamond-bearing volcanic crater. In addition to diamonds, you can also find minerals such as amethyst, quartz, and garnet there.
Now, if you’re wondering how likely it is to find a diamond in the field, David Anderson can answer your question. Earlier this month, he found a 3.29-carat brown diamond while sifting through gravel.
“At first, I thought it was quartz, but I wondered why it was so shiny,” Anderson said, according to the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism. “Once I picked it up, I realized it was a diamond!”
That find wasn’t a fluke either. Anderson explains that he has found more than 400 diamonds over the past 16 years, including 15 that each weighed more than 1 carat. In fact, one of his finds was a 3.83-carat yellow diamond found in December 2011 and another was a 6.19-carat white gem discovered in April 2014.
Finders Keepers
Last year, 758 diamonds were registered by visitors at Crater of Diamonds State Park. Of those finds, 17 weighed more than 1 carat and two weighed more than 2 carats.
Crater of Diamonds State Park explains that visitors have already found and registered 124 diamonds this year. On average, one or two diamonds are found by park visitors every day.
Those who find diamonds in the park usually name them, and Anderson is no exception. He named this diamond “B.U.D.” he explains.
“That’s for Big Ugly Diamond,” Anderson said, due to the diamond’s pitted surface and mottled brown color.
“Mr. Anderson’s diamond is about the size of an English pea, with a light brown color and octahedron shape,” Park Interpreter Tayler Markham said. “It has a metallic shine typical of all diamonds found at the park, with a partially resorbed surface and lots of inclusions.”
Markham explains that all diamonds found at Crater of Diamonds State Park have gone through what’s called “partial resorption” during the eruption that brought them to the surface. Magma in volcanic pipe melted the diamonds’ outer surfaces, which gave them smooth, rounded edges, continued Markham.
Amazingly, the largest diamond ever discovered in the U.S. was found in 1924 during a mining operation on the land that later became Crater of Diamonds State Park. The white diamond with a pink cast weighed 40.23 carats. Named the Uncle Sam, it was later cut into a 12.42-carat emerald shape.
Today, the Uncle Sam is part of the Smithsonian’s mineral and gem collection and can be seen at the National Museum of Natural History.
How You Can Hunt For Diamonds Too
If you’re thinking about going hunting for diamonds too, there’s good news: It isn’t hard.
The field where the diamonds are found is plowed when the weather allows to help loosen the surface soil and promote diamond finds. Although plowing is not scheduled, it is typically done once a month during spring, summer, and fall.
There is a fee to hunt for diamonds. For adults, that fee is $13. If you’ll be taking kids or grandkids to help hunt for diamonds, the fee is $6 for kids between 6 and 12.
You can even purchase tickets to search the diamond area online.
Now, let’s face it: Few people know how to hunt for diamonds. With that in mind, Crater of Diamonds State Park has several digging for diamonds videos to teach visitors about searching for diamonds.
You don’t even need to take your own diamond-hunting equipment because you can rent everything you need at the park. For example, you can rent what’s called a “basic diamond hunting kit,” which includes a shovel, screen set, and bucket for $15. You can also rent individual pieces of equipment, such as kneeling pads, box screens, and even a wagon.
You can learn more about fees and equipment rentals in the park’s Plan Your Adventure info.
Finally, the park offers free rock and mineral identification at the Diamond Discovery Center. Diamonds are weighed and certified free of charge for the finder.
After that, you can do whatever you want with the diamonds — even sell them.
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