Photo courtesy Crater of Diamonds State Park
An English pea-sized “ugly diamond” has been recovered by a visitor at Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park.
Weighing 3.29 carats, the brown stone was found last month by David Anderson of Murfreesboro, Tenn. A regular visitor to the park, Anderson spotted the diamond while wet-sifting soil from the West Drain of the site’s 15.2-ha (37.5-acre) diamond search area.
“At first I thought it was quartz, but wondered why it was so shiny,” he says. “Once I picked it up, I realized it was a diamond.”
The stone is the largest diamond recovered from the park this year and the largest brown variety found since 2020.
Drawing inspiration from its pitted surface and mottled brown colour, the diamond has been dubbed ‘B.U.D.’
“That’s for Big, Ugly Diamond,” Anderson says.
“Mr. Anderson’s diamond is about the size of an English pea, with a light brown colour and octahedron shape,” adds park interpreter, Tayler Markham. “It has a metallic shine typical of all diamonds found at the park, with a partially resorbed surface and lots of inclusions.”
Anderson first learned about the park in 2007 and made his first visit later that year. He has since found more than 400 diamonds, including 15 larger than one carat.
“After I found my first diamond, a 1.5-carat white, I was hooked!” he says.
He typically sells his diamonds locally and says he plans to sell this one, too.
All diamonds found at Crater of Diamonds State Park have gone through partial resorption during the eruption that brought them to the surface, Markham explains.
“Magma in volcanic pipe melted the diamonds’ outer surfaces and gave them smooth, rounded edges,” she says. “Larger diamonds, like Mr. Anderson’s, may have rough areas on the surface, but you can still find signs of resorption on the corners and edges.”
The discovery is the largest gem park staff have registered since September 2021 when a visitor from Granite Bay, Calif., discovered a 4.38-carat yellow diamond.
More than 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed at the Crater of Diamonds since the first diamonds were discovered in 1906 by John Huddleston, a farmer who owned the land long before it became an Arkansas State Park in 1972.
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