If you have a strong interest in gemstones, you would probably love to have an opportunity to mine for diamonds yourself. This can be done in the only producing diamond mine in the United States and the only diamond mine in the world where you can be the miner.
This diamond mine is located near Murfreesboro, Arkansas. For a fee of a few dollars, anyone can enter the mine, search all day and keep any diamonds that they find.
In addition to
diamonds, you might find one of the many colourful gemstones that occur naturally there. These include amethyst, agate, jasper, garnet, peridot, hematite and many others.
The diamonds at the Park occur in the soil, and that makes them easy to look for. Some people find them after it rains by walking through the field looking for the bright reflection of a diamond that has been washed clean by the rain.
Other people dig in the soil and carefully search through it one shovel-full at a time. You can bring your own tools or rent tools at the Park. Power tools are not allowed; however, the Park periodically ploughs the diamond field to turn up fresh soil.
Searching is easy but you will need a combination of luck, patience and a very sharp eye to find a diamond. Most people don’t find a diamond during their visit, but a few miners have been extremely successful.
However, almost everyone has fun prospecting. Since the park opened in 1972, a little less than 3,000,000 paid visits to the park (“visits” is used instead of “visitors” because many people visit the Park many
times) have resulted in about 30,000 reported diamond finds.
Most of the diamonds found are very small – too small for cutting into a mountable stone. The 30,000 stones reported have an aggregate weight of a little under 6,000 carats, making the average stone about twenty points (.20 carat) in weight.
The diamonds and other minerals found at Crater of Diamonds State Park are genuine Arkansas minerals. They are not “salted” specimens brought in from other localities to enrich the soil or the collecting experience.
Diamonds from the Park have unique characteristics, and experienced individuals are able to recognize them. Although most stones found are small, some spectacular specimens have been found.
The “Uncle Sam Diamond,” the largest diamond ever found in North America, was found there in 1924.
Other amenities in the park include walking trails, picnic sites, campsites, a gift shop, and Diamond Springs Water Park (seasonal), which is a great place to cool off after a summer day of digging for diamonds.
