Crater of Diamond State Park, Murfreesboro, Arkansas

Let the search begin!! I drove up here from Lake Bistineau State Park today through much appreciated sun! It was SO good to have sun again after 3 days of rain off & on and clouds.  A 3 hour drive, but real good roads for a change!

So, this park is the site of a former massive volcano that brought up diamonds from the deep. The first diamond was found in 1906 here. After that numerous attempts were made to mine for diamonds here, but none were successful. From 1952 – 1972 it was owned privately as a tourist attraction.

In 1972 it was purchased by the state to be developed into a State Park. Good for all of us!! Get this, over 30,000 diamonds have been found by park visitors since 1972. In 1942, the biggest diamond ever found in North America, called the Uncle Sam, was found here. It was 40.23 carats! Can you imagine!! Wonder how much that was worth??? 

In 1998, it became famous for finding a diamond that the American Gem Society graded as “flawless”. 1.09 carats. a “one in a billion find”. It’s displayed in the Visitor Center. Imagine! 

So…what you can do here for a $10 per adult charge? Walk, dig, rake, sift, repeat, anywhere you want to in a 37 acre field from 8:00 a.m.to 4:00 p.m. You can also take one 5 gallon bucket of sifted sand from there per day. (To take your time looking through it later). They have sluices to sift with water, or sift on site if it’s dry. They usually rent tools and sifters to you, but aren’t now because of the Covid. I was going to make my own sifters, so I bought two different sized screens and an 8’ 1X1 wood piece which I cut into 1 foot sections. That’s as far as I got! Then it rained and was cold and damp out, so I couldn’t continue. I didn’t want to drill and cut screen inside the RV. It would be like doing it in your living room or kitchen!!

So, my supplies for tomorrow will be my screen sections, gloves, knee pads, small rake, trowel, small shovel, bucket, small chair, hat, gloves, pictures of various gems for reference and stuff to drink. Should be fun, no matter what. I’ll keep you posted!