by eyetee | August 18, 2008 12:00 am
You never know what you might find in the park, especially if it’s the only diamond-producing state park open to the public.
For nine-year-old Matthew Smith of Dallas, Tex., his lucky find turned out to be a 2.75-carat brown diamond discovered along a path at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas.
About 10 minutes into their visit, the boy noticed something sparkling on the ground, picked it up, and showed it to his mother. While she didn’t think the cola-coloured stone was a diamond, she suggested he put it in his bucket. Later, park staff told the awestruck family they’d found something much more valuable than a simple rock.
It’s ‘finders-keepers’ at the state park. The 15-hectare plowed field is the eroded surface of the eighth largest diamond-bearing deposit in the world. Most diamonds found there are white, brown, and yellow, and two are unearthed every day by park visitors.
More than 75,000 diamonds have been found at the site since the original landowner discovered some in 1906. The value of Smith’s diamond is unknown.
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