Visitor discovers 2.30-carat diamond at Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds Park, 2nd-largest find of 2024
A visitor at Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park discovered a 2.30-carat white diamond in the park's 37.5-acre search area. (Credit: Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park)
MURFREESBORO, Ark. - An unidentified visitor was one of the lucky few to spot a diamond at Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park last month.
Park rangers said the visitor found a 2.30-carat white diamond in the park’s 37.5-acre diamond search area.
It's the third diamond over two carats that was found this year and the second-largest found at the park in 2024.
Park rangers said the visitor first came to the park at 8 a.m. local time. The person rented a basic kit from the park and started out wet sifting, which is a search method that involves washing dirt from diamond-bearing gravel through screens of graduated sizes in water.
After hours passed with no luck, the person tried surface searching.
RELATED: Cruise ship finally sets sail on world voyage after 4-month delay
"If I find a diamond today, it will probably be right here on the surface," the visitor said to park rangers.
The guest then spotted something sparkling on the ground.
"From far away it shined so clearly," the guest said in a news release. "I thought it might be a piece of trash or a bug; it was so much shinier than anything else out there."
The guest then realized it was a diamond and registered it with the park.
Park officials said, 548 diamonds have been registered by park guests in 2024, weighing more than 82 carats. They add an average of one to two diamonds are found each day.
The Crater of Diamond State Park allows the public to search for diamonds, and has a "finders-keepers" policy if a lucky visitor happens upon a gem.
On the state park's website, it says that visitors have 37.5 acres to scavenge for diamonds on the eroded surface of an ancient, diamond-bearing volcanic crater.