The Crater of Diamonds State Park

The Crater of Diamonds State Park sits somewhere near the quaint city of Murfreesboro

in Pike Country, Arkansas in the US and whilst its tag-line as 'the only diamond-bearing site in the world that is open to the public' may seem a little fantastical, you'd be surprised at just how unique this place really is.

A quick overview for you all: The entire place stands at an impressive 911 acres with a giant 37 acre crater sitting in the middle. Crater of Diamonds State Park rests cautiously atop a once-active volcanic pipe and so was officially dubbed 'The Crater of Diamonds'. Throughout the year, the public are invited to visit the site free of charge and, for a small fee, are allowed to actually dig for diamonds and other gemstones themselves! It's said that over 600 diamonds a year (all varying in colour and grade) are found by the public and the best part is that whatever you happen to find is yours, regardless of value. Seriously, how cool is that?

Over 29,000 diamonds have been found at the Crater of Diamonds State Park since it became a state park back in the early 1900's and a handful of those gems have eventually been sold on for hundreds of thousands of pounds. To give you an idea, one of them weighed in at an astounding 40-carats of pure diamond, the biggest ever found in North America! It's not all just diamonds, diamonds, diamonds though; visitors have also been known to find a host of other semi-precious stones including Amethyst, Agate, Jasper, and Quartz and over 40 other minerals.

So how does a place like this begin you must wonder? Well it's quite simple really; back in 1906, an Arkansas farmer by the name of John Huddleston found two strange crystals poking out of his farmland. After confirming that they were indeed diamonds, he decided to sell some of his land to a group of Investors who were looking to mine for precious stones in the US and, well, the rest is history! What's even more amazing is that Huddleston then became the first person outside of South Africa to find diamonds at their original source. Some people are so lucky.

So it's safe to say that if you ever happen to pop over to the US and are travelling through Arkansas, make sure you stop by the little of Murfreesboro for some good old diamond digging at the famous Crater of Diamonds State Park!

The Crater of Diamonds State Park

By: Brenda Fuller

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