diamonds in arkansas

I heard about Crater of Diamonds State Park on either TLC or the Travel Channel when they had a program on best treasure hunting places. I had planned to go there this summer, but doesn't look like I am going to be able to. But, I WILL get there one of these days!

There have been some fabulous diamonds found there. The Amarillo Starlight (16.23 carats), Kahn Canary (4.2 yellow diamond, worn by H.Clinton at Bill's inaugural balls in '93 and 97), the "Uncle Sam" (40.23 carats), and numerous others.

Here's the link for one of the websites on this park
www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com/

Definitely a "rockhounder's heaven".

llana

Hi,
I've been to the Crater three times, and it's not easy to get there from here. Last time we flew to Little Rock and got a rental car; it was really the only reasonable airport to use, and it is something like 2 and a half hours drive from there. I had a free ticket that needed to be used up, and that was really the only choice. The only other city anywhere close is Texarkana and the airline didn't go there. It was last October, I had just gotten my first tumbler, and I am sorry now that I didn't try some other rockhounding than just looking for diamonds! I now have a large cooler's volume of washed gravel from there that I brought home and still haven't searched, but at least I've screened out the larger gravel from the fines. One thing I've done is to save the tailings when I do search, and I've experimented with throwing some fines/sand in my barrels when I've had trouble with them refusing to form mud and it seems to help make slurry. I was thinking today that I'd start throwing the gravel in more often, because I think some of the problem I have with slurry is that I need to have more small stones in the barrels. I've got a few other decent rocks from the Crater, a nice piece of agate is one. Airline check in with one cooler full of gravel and another with equipment was a hoot!

FWIW here's a review of the park and its surroundings. Murfreesboro is awful. The only decent meal I had in a 3 day weekend was a coney island dog from the Sonic. The other couple restaurants are a nightmare. We tried to go to the best in town and walked out before we were seated. The reason was that we walked in and were in the bar/smoking room. When they offered non-smoking as an alternative and we chose it, we were routed to the next room, which was deserted and which smelled heavily of disinfectant. It was intolerable.

On the earlier 2 trips in the 80's I was camping, and I would never do it any other way after the Murfreesboro experience last October. It was like the Twilight Zone. But the park campground is, or was, very nice. Also, they are a dry county! When we figured this out and hadn't brought along any beer supplies, we drove some 40+ miles one way to cross the county line and stock up.

As far as the diamond digging part goes, they are finding a lot of stones there presently. There are some regulars who have staked out several areas and are digging deep holes. I have read that they studied old maps indicating water courses and are using sounding rods to find the now buried gravel beds. Those of us who are there on a weekend trip aren't likely to pick a spot and dig down 5 or 6 feet, so we have to use other methods.... I looked at maps of the area and tried to pick the best areas to search based on historical finds and the type of rock in the area. I also tried to find drainage channels and scrape gravel from the alluvial fans.

I have mixed feelings about the Crater. It's taken a lot of effort to get there 3 times and I am drawn by the allure of the treasure hunt. In practice, you are in for a lot of work. I'm in good shape and a day on the field is exhausting. I also always found that I couldn't wash down nearly as much stuff as I thought I would be able to. It's scary for the newbie like myself, too, to leave the tailings at the wash station. I don't trust my searches or my ability to use the panning screen correctly. I've been looking forward to summer and sitting outside going through all the stuff I've got to search. Nothing found yet, but you never know. Although, historically, some of the largest diamonds found were discovered by tourists doing casual searches, the majority are found by the regulars. The woman who turned up the diamond that turned out to be a one-in-a-billion AAA flawless or whatever it was, was a regular who was working her 5 or 6 foot deep hole. She found another diamond, a yellow stone over a carat IIRC, the same day. Her Dad was a ranger there, IIRC, and that's how she developed the interest.
In my gravel there's a bunch of jasper and who knows what else. My rock ID skills are lacking.
I hope that this is helpful.

Is anyone looking for alluvial diamonds in the streams near the Diamond Crater Park?

I've been to the crater many times (use to live in Ark as a boy) and found 2 dimonds both reddish in color and both about 5-10 points. Moved away in highschool and now live in dallas, tx. About 3 yrs ago I took my wife back there for another look-see (wife hated it) and didn't find any dimonds but did find a couple of nice amethyst points and a small quartz cluster.

FYI best time to go is spring or fall, best ime to look is after a good rain.

I dream Of visiting one day- I have worked Herkimer (Hard work busting Dolomite all day) and hit it big once (2 fist sized diamonds {quartz crystals} plus a slew of smaller stones) but it never fails to thrill me- just mining for rock!

Hello, I also lived in Florida and was reading something about tumbling sea shells? Is this possible?

Right now we're in my home state of Jersey but pan on spending te wintter in Mexico..should be interesting looking for rocks there.....

betty