I Found a Large Beautiful Diamond in Arkansas
Glenn W. Worthington
Copyright 2012 by Glenn W. Worthington
Smashwords Edition
This is the true story of how I sought for, and found a flawless, 2.04-carat, intensely yellow diamond at Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park. My discovery was awarded “One of the Best Finds of 2009” by the editors of Western and Eastern Treasure Magazine.
I Found a Large Beautiful Diamond in Arkansas
Most city, state, and national parks do not allow you to pick up rocks and take them home with you. But one, unique, state park in Arkansas encourages visitors to collect rocks and gems. And they allow people to keep what they find—even if it is a valuable diamond. The park I am referring to is the Crater of Diamonds State Park in southwest Arkansas, half-way between Hot Springs and Texarkana.
I have been finding diamonds at this park off and on for the past 34 years. I found my first ten diamonds in the summer of 1978. Until 2009 my best diamond and my largest diamond were among those first ten that I found. My best diamond had been a three-quarter carat, yellow beauty. The largest diamond had been a one-and-one-fifth carat brown that was just plain ugly. So, for 31 years I had it hanging over me that my biggest diamond was not a pretty one.
(This is the prettiest diamond I have found between 1978 and 2009. It is a fancy yellow that weighs 78 points, or 78/100ths of a carat. It has not been cut. It was set in its natural form.)
When I first joined the diamond hunt, one of the most amazing facts I learned was that not all diamonds were white. The state park has kept records of diamond colors for all of the ones registered with them since the site became a state park in 1972. Sixty percent are white (clear), twenty-one percent are brown, seventeen percent yellow, and all other colors like green, orange, gray, pink, and black make up the remaining two percent. The fancy, intense yellow diamonds are the most desired and valuable.
Due to other obligations I only have time to search for diamonds at the Crater part time. But I was able to dig and wash 1,081, five-gallon buckets of gravel in 2008. All totaled, I found 46 diamonds. Most of them, unfortunately, were small. There are 100 decimal points of weight per carat, and the largest diamond I found in 2008 was a 64-point, ugly brown. My best find of that year was a 62-point, naturally heart-shaped, white diamond. It was so lovely and unique that I had set in a ring for me to wear and enjoy.
(This find was awarded “One of the Best Finds of 2008” by the editors of Western & Eastern Treasure Magazine. The story of this discovery is told in my ebook, “Pursuing Arkansas Gold and Diamonds.”)
My diamond-per-bucket ratio improved in 2009. Up to the end of April, I found 46 diamonds—the same as my entire last year’s total. But I found them in just 580 buckets. But several of these diamonds weighed just one point (1/100th of a carat) each.
(Here are some of the pretty, little diamonds I found. The “large” item in the photo is the head of a straight pin!)
On March 16, 2009 I set a new, personal record for myself. I found three diamonds in one day. The very next day I doubled that record by finding six diamonds in one day. These nine diamonds ranged in size from 2 to 12 points each.
But I wasn’t looking for little diamonds. That is just what I happened to find while searching for a big one. Although I had found a lot of diamonds over the years I had not found one that weighed over a carat since that big, ugly one more than three decades earlier. All of my diamond-mining buddies said that I was way past due for another, carat-plus diamond.