Man Finds 2.95-carat Diamond in Arkansas State Park

THV 11 reported that on July 4, a Kentucky man found a 2.95-carat champagne diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. Park visitors have found 304 diamonds so far this year.

As quoted in the market news:

[Terry] Staggs found the diamond while walking the East Drain section of the park’s 37 ½-acre diamond search area and checking out everything that sparkled. The diamond caught his attention after he’d been surface searching for about two and one half hours.

In total, over 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed at Arkansas’s diamond site since the first diamonds found in 1906 by John Huddleston, the farmer who at that time owned the land, long before the site became an Arkansas state park in 1972. The largest diamond ever discovered in the United States was unearthed here in 1924 during an early mining operation. Named the
Uncle Sam, this white diamond with a pink cast weighed 40.23 carats. Other large notable finds from the Crater include the Amarillo Starlight, a 15.33-carat white diamond discovered in 1975, and the Star of Shreveport, an 8.82-carat white gem unearthed in 1981. In 2011, an 8.66-carat white diamond named the Illusion Diamond became the third-largest gem registered at the Crater of Diamonds State Park since 1972.

Click here to read the full THV 11 report.