Florida Couple Overjoyed to Find Huge 3.36-Carat Diamond in the Soil of Crater of Diamonds State Park
“Hey, I think I have one!” Scott Freitas exclaimed to his wife, Jennifer, after three of his buckets had been loaded with dirt. The couple had arrived from New Port Richey, Florida, to tick off an item in their bucket list, not knowing it would cost them three buckets. The effort, however, was worth it. After a series of wet sifting sessions, Scott finally spotted a glimmering diamond staring back at him from the soil bed. Nicknamed “Dash Diamond,” the stone is an anecdote that illustrates how nature’s treasures are as close to use as our feet are to our shoes. All it takes is some buckets, patience, hope, and attentive removal of dirt. The episode was reported by Arkansas State Parks.
The incident was recorded in Murfreesboro, at the Crater of Diamonds State Park. The 37.5-acre area is not just a sightseeing field slathered with thick dirt. It is also a field where thousands of visitors rush every year with screens, buckets, shovels, patience, and lots of hope. The field, as it turns out, is gashed with a carrot-shaped volcanic vent that is secretly rumbling with a trove of diamonds. The vent was carved out by an earlier volcanic eruption. A pipe snaking through this vent leads the visitors to find diamonds.
Like most visitors, Scott and Jennifer chose to use the “water sifting” method to hunt the diamonds. The method separates heavier gravel layers from lighter soil while the soil protects the diamonds washed by rain, so they remain visible to the naked eye. Every diamond here carries a unique structure. Some are water-worn crystals with waxy shine and glittering rounded edges. Others have been shaped over time depending on the fluids they were exposed to while they sat in the bed of soil and gravel.
The diamond that the couple stumbled upon turned out to be a 3.36-carat stone about the size of a blueberry, as the outlet describes it. The diamond came from lamproite, a diamond-bearing volcanic rock related to deep mantle magma. It is an uncommon volcanic rock that rises upwards and delivers crystals fast without melting them. “I was stunned when I saw the pictures of the diamond. The shape, clarity, color, and size made it a beautifully natural gemstone,” said Park Superintendent Caleb Howell.
Scott and Jennifer are not just visitors who were blessed with a lucky day. In this field, in the Crater of Diamonds, diamond hunting is open for all visitors, as part of an initiative led by Arkansas State Parks, the public agency that manages the park. The rangers and employees here guide the visitors on how to search for diamonds, also registering every piece someone discovers. While it might seem like a Herculean task to pick diamonds from dirt, diamonds actually stand out due to their gravity and concentration compared to ordinary water crystals.
The park registers an average of one to two diamond finds per day. More than 75,000 have been unearthed by diggers since 1906. The largest diamond ever to be found in the United States came only from this field in 1924. Today, a 12.42-carat cut diamond made from the original 40.23-carat “Uncle Sam” sits in the Smithsonian collection, according to the park’s report.
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