Looking for a truly unique vacation experience? Then head to the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. Here guests are encouraged to dig, scrounge, sift and trench the park’s grounds in the quest for diamonds. The Park is home to the only active mining site in the country that allows visitors to keep everything they are lucky enough to find.Does it require luck? Realistically, it is only the luck of the moment that brings a visitor into contact with a significant find. In fact the Park’s two most recent diamonds of significant value and size were both discovered at different times and locations by children simply wandering the area’s path and utility roads.
The grounds do deliver approximately two diamonds every single day, but there is also a wealth of other precious and semi-precious stones to be found. These include garnets, peridot, amethyst and quartz, as well as a wide range of minerals and stones.
Currently the Park is considered the eighth largest diamond “lode” in the world. Visitors are allowed to roam over thirty five acres of the park’s terrain. The center of activity however is the actual “crater”. This is a ninety five million year old shaft of debris that can harbor diamonds, minerals and anything that the volcanic activity carried with it so many eons before.
Will it really be a big crater? No, actually most guests are surprised to discover a field of trenches and rows where visitors dig, pan and sift for diamonds and other gems and minerals. The “crater” is approximately eighty four acres in size, and it sits atop what is commonly called a “kimberlite pipe“. This means that millions of years earlier, deep in the Earth’s mantle, molten lava and incredible pressure converted carbon into diamonds. At some point the molten lava encountered a crack or fissure in the Earth’s crust and eventually the accumulated pressures allowed a volcanic eruption to occur. At that time the “crater” was created, and debris, including diamonds, was blown into the air and atmosphere. The debris also was embedded in the walls of the “pipe” as the molten fluid blasted its way to the surface. Today the remains of that activity have created the Park’s landscape, full of diamonds just waiting to be found.
Why isn’t the Park a commercial mine? It actually was a commercial interest for many years, but in 1972 the two parcels of land that now form the Park were purchased by the state and opened for public mining. To date the site has delivered more than twenty five thousand diamonds into the hands of the active guests and visitors who go digging.
Have any record setting finds been discovered? In fact the most “perfect” diamond ever certified by the American Gem Society was found at the Park, where it is also on permanent display in the visitor’s center. The “Strawn-Wagner Diamond”, though only a single carat in size is, to date, the only flawless stone ever discovered. The Park has also yielded the largest diamond ever found in North America. The “Uncle Sam“, a light brown diamond of approximately forty two carats was cut to twelve carats in 1971.
Never heard of a light brown diamond? The Park is noted for yielding up three colors of diamonds. There are the colorless or white diamonds, which is the color of the “Strawn-Wagner”; there are yellows, and finally browns. Considering the current market demand for colored diamonds, a day or two spent in the Park could yield some truly remarkable financial rewards.
How hard is it to find a diamond, or other stone? Locating items in the crater requires only some light handwork or shoveling. In fact, as stated before, some of the most recent and notable finds have involved no work at all. The “Pathfinder Diamond” was found lying in the dirt along a service road, and a second more recent find was found near a wooded path that many guests travel each day.
If digging is involved in a search for diamonds, the tools required are a shovel, gloves, a few different pans or sieves and knee pads (all of which guests are able to rent at the Park’s headquarters). Most of the larger stones are found through the honest labor of a visitor’s hands, not lying by the paths and roadways, so planning on an afternoon in the “trenches” is a good choice. Guests are also encouraged to “pan” in the nearby rivers and streams, since runoff and erosion often deliver gemstones and diamonds into waterways.
How do I know when I have found a diamond? While there are Park Rangers that frequently make themselves available to help visitors identify their finds, most diamonds will distinguish themselves through a mildly oily texture, a smooth and rounded surface, and a yellow or brownish hue. Holding a rough diamond in the hand will allow a viewer to see into it, but not completely through it, like glass.
What do I do with my discoveries? Keep them, have them rated by a gemologist or a formal laboratory, sell them…it is all up to the visitor who finds them!
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