Parks and Planes

Our Day Digging for Diamonds

Tucked away in the southwest corner of Arkansas, you will find a geological wonderland where you can dig and toil for gems and pocket what you find. Did you unearth a 2-carat diamond? If you did, it’s yours for keeps if found in this state park!

Crater of Diamonds State Park, just south of Murfreesboro in Arkansas, is home to the only diamond-bearing site accessible to the public in the world.  The field and its many minerals, gems and diamonds found here is an eroded volcanic crater. Plowed daily, you’d have no inkling of this land’s past. We had no idea what we were looking at when we arrived, so we learned a lot about the history and geology of the place when visiting the diamond discover center before getting our dig on. Access to the center is included in the state park admission price.

The small chance we might scrap our shovel against a diamond and shake it free had us arriving at this state park on a surging wave of adrenaline. Our advanced research consisted of watching YouTube videos about how to locate the optimal digging spots where diamonds would likely be hiding (spoiler: we were told to look for areas that recently had water flowing in or around the area. This did not prove to pay off, but it definitely had us getting our hopes up on repeat). We also showed up looking like major diamond digger amateurs. I had on blue jean overalls with a sun hat with a giant bow on the back and Justin was rocking a fedora style hat and kneepads. Fellow diggers couldn’t help but comment on our choice outfits and if they didn’t say anything outright, they certainly were examining things with their eyes. We also arrived with an arsenal of tools, which we picked up at a Wal-Mart and local trading post, both passed en route to the state park.

Our supplies consisted of:

• Two $3 pairs of gym shoes which were caked with mud by the end of the day and completely useless
• Two plastic pails/buckets – you can bring in an up to 5-gallon bucket per person
• Two different wire and wood sifters which we bought at a trading post outside the park entrance
• Two pairs of gardening gloves
• Knee pads (brought from home)
• Clothes that could get filthy

Walking out to the field brought the pleasure of novelty – every step an experiment. At the start, every step and swipe of the shovel whisking away a fine layer of dirt held promise. We were high on the possibility both of us secretly leaning into the probability that we would find a diamond. We thought we’d be among the lucky. Doesn’t everyone? The first time we took our buckets over to the water troughs to sift, hope would rise with each shake, shake, shake of the sifter. I screamed thinking I found a diamond the first time I sifted only to quickly realize I was looking at a piece of quartz. A nice piece, and one we took home with us, but just quartz, nonetheless. As the day wore on, we watched our skin turn dust-matted; the exact light brown as the dirt beneath our feet and then it became streaked with racetracks of sweat. We were toiling. Hard.

Dusted in grime, with kneepads still strapped tightly across our knees, we both rose from the dirt. The filed was wearing us down and the clouds were starting to get hazy and heavy. We swiped sweat from our foreheads and squinted up into the late afternoon sun. To keep digging or to cash out, that was the question. After a full day of hard work, lugging buckets of dirt and sifting in the water troughs, we were spent. I turned to survey the sprawling 37-acre wide field one final time hoping to feel an irresistible pull towards one patch of land more so than another, but it never came. That one moment that would change our lives forever and lead us to an actual diamond that we could take home with us. The ultimate souvenir. The too-good-to-be-true story that we’d pass down like wild folklore.

As luck would have it, we left the field seconds before the sky unleashed a torrential downpour. Stuck under the tent we visited with the geologist who looked at our findings and helped us understand the minerals we had unearthed. He explained each one before placing it in a Ziploc bag for us. Once the rain slowed just a bit, we took off for our car in the parking lot, dumped our dirty shoes and most of our clothes in a garbage bag and left the park still in awe at how we had spent our day.

Pro tip: You can leave the park with a full bucket of unshifted dirt for no additional charge. You can bring in an up to 5-gallon bucket (1 per person)

Final Thoughts

Of all the reasons you might have to go to this state park, the simplest is this: to feel the rush from the novel. To understand anticipation in your bones and to share that with others. What more could you ask for?

Happy diamond dig day!

-Justin and Alyssa