Walking in the countryside is a nice hobby. You do sports outdoors, breathe fresh air, you can find mushrooms, asparagus and even diamonds. Secondly, if you are very lucky or walking in the ‘Diamond Crater’, a very special area of ​​a State Park in the United States that promises to find a diamond if you visit it. You can also take it home with you.

Although, considering the price of asparagus, maybe it’s even better than finding diamonds. And much richer.

‘Arkansame’ is that diamond. The story begins in 1906. John Huddlestone was a farmer who owned land in a small rural town in Arkansas. I didn’t know his property was on a volcanic vent, but it turns out it was, not just any, but a lamproite vent. It is a rock from which diamonds can be mined. One day, he found two minerals and after examining them, they turned out to be two diamonds.

Rumors of diamonds spread and the area filled with curious people looking for luck, but it turned out that the diamonds were located in a particular country. Some of it belonged to John, some of it belonged to a person named MM Mauney. It turns out that the Arkansas Diamond Company bought John out, but Mauney didn’t want to sell.

shark mentality. Mauney saw that people wanted to find diamonds, so he did what many would do: If the diamonds are on my property and people want to get in, let them pay. And so he did, he started his own business and was able to manage it for a while until he finally started selling it. Now not to Arkansas Diamond, but to other buyers.

But in 1969, General Earth Minerals in Dallas stepped in and purchased the two properties and kept the business private. And in 1972, the state of Arkansas entered the equation and said it was over, it was going to be a State Park (after paying $750,000 for the land, of course). The surrounding area was turned into a park, but the diamond exploration area remained. This will be important later.

bud. And so we find ourselves in 2007, the year a man named David Anderson went to the park and found his first apple. Anderson became so fond of it that he collected more than 400 diamonds in the last 16 years. Some are extremely small, but 15 weigh more than one carat. In 2011, he found one of 3.83 carats, and in 2014, one of 6.19 carats.

Depending on conditions, a one-carat can sell for between $1,000 and $13,000, meaning Anderson has a small fortune. The interesting thing is that you can find them in all colors and sizes. In fact, a year ago he found what he thought was a quartz piece (still very important) of 3.29 carats and named it BUD (meaning ‘big ugly diamond’).

holiday with diamonds. Logically, just as Mauney exploited his land in his time, today the diamond ‘hunting’ area continues to be seen as a business area and can be accessed after purchasing a ticket. The price is $15, and search kits are available for an additional fee of about $20. It is still a tourist attraction (adding to the beauty of the place) and people like Julien Navas have taken advantage of it.

with Navas apple

So why do we give a tourist a first and last name? Because a year ago this French tourist traveled to eastern North America and stopped by the park, taking advantage of the fact that he wanted to see the Culvan Centaur launch at Cape Canaveral. After hours of searching, he found a 7.46-carat diamond, one of the largest diamonds found in the park. The value of this discovery is incalculable, but it turns out that Navas will not sell it, but instead cut it up to distribute to his wife and daughter.

50 years of competition. If you think the Anderson and Navas diamonds are big, you should know that there are much larger diamonds in the park. The park has been holding records since its opening, and we find many things close to 10 carats inside. However, the award is given to WW Johnson, one of the region’s first treasure hunters, who found a 16.37-carat white diamond in 1975. And in total, more than 35,200 diamonds have been found, 838 of which are due in 2023, so it looks like the ‘mine’ is far from exhausted.

So, if you ever want to visit the natural sights of Arkansas and the surrounding area, you already know that there is another attraction in the area: a park where you can find and store diamonds. According to the owners, one to two diamonds are found per person every day.

Pictures | Arkansas State Parks

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