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In my time as an employee of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage & Tourism, and now, as a middle school Arkansas history teacher, I’ve learned that next to Bill Clinton and Walmart, our state is most known for being the only state where the public can mine for diamonds.
That's right. If you work hard and have a little luck, you might be able to find precious gems at Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro (Pike County).
The 911-acre Crater of Diamonds State Park features a 37-acre plowed field that sits atop an ancient volcanic vent known as the Prairie Creek Pipe. The volcanic explosion that formed this pipe more than 100 million years ago brought diamonds from deep within the earth’s mantle to the surface.
John Wesley Huddleston found the first diamond on the site in August 1906. The next month, Huddleston sold an option on 243 acres of the land to a group of Little Rock businessmen, including Samuel Reyburn.
But Reyburn and company's several attempts at commercial diamond mining there failed, with the only significant yield coming from the original surface layer, where erosion over a long period of time had concentrated the diamonds.
After Huddleston found the first diamond in 1906, the area around the mine was overrun with prospectors seeking to strike it rich.
According to local legend, hotels in and around Murfreesboro turned away 20,000 people that year. So the hopeful miners formed a tent city near the Crater of Diamonds, which they named "Kimberly" after the famed Kimberley diamond district in South Africa.
Another story says that Kimberly was created as a land-development venture in 1909 by Mallard M. Mauney and his son, Walter. That project went bust as the diamond boom faded almost as quickly as it began. Today, the Kimberly area is almost all cow pasture and farmland owned by descendants of the Mauneys.
But people have found diamonds at Crater of Diamonds, some of them notable. They include the 40.23-carat Uncle Sam, the largest diamond ever unearthed in the United States; the 16.37-carat Amarillo Starlight; the 15.33-carat Star of Arkansas; and the 8.52-carat Esperanza.
The most famous diamond found there is the 3.03-carat Strawn-Wagner diamond, discovered in 1990 by Shirley Strawn of Murfreesboro in 1990. The gem was cut down to a 1.09-carat brilliant shape and was certified as a perfect D flawless diamond, which is the highest quality diamond ever graded by the American Gemological Society.
The Crater of Diamonds became part of the Arkansas park system in 1972, when the Department of Parks & Tourism purchased the site from the Arkansas Diamond Co. and Ozark Diamond Mines Corp., which had previously operated the site together as a tourist attraction. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in June 1973.
Today, Crater of Diamonds State Park is open to the public and for a small fee — $13 for adults and $6 for children — visitors can dig for diamonds and other precious gems. Park visitors find an average of more than 600 diamonds each year. As of 2020, more than 80,000 diamonds have been found in the park. Regardless of the diamond’s value, visitors are permitted to keep what they find.
Crater of Diamonds State Park also features a visitor center with information about the geology of the park, a gift shop and a small restaurant. The park also contains the popular aquatic playground, Diamond Springs Water Park. For more, visit the park’s website at craterofdiamondsstatepark.com.
So with spring break coming up, you might want to pack up and take the kids to Murfreesboro and dig for diamonds. Who knows? You might come back millions of dollars richer.
A sixth-generation Arkansan, Darrell Brown is a lover of all things Arkansas. He lives in Saline County with his wife, Amy, and their beloved Boston Terrier, Dixie. His previous columns can be found at AllAroundArkansas.blogspot.com.
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