Oklahoma Family Discovers 3 Carat Diamond at Arkansas Park

Diamonds. Credit: Kim Alaniz. CC BY 2.0/flickr

An Oklahoma family’s day travel to an Arkansas authorities parkland turned into a treasure hunt erstwhile they unearthed a astir 3-carat brownish diamond.

Raynae Madison of Cookson, Oklahoma, discovered the 2.79-carat gem portion visiting Crater of Diamonds State Park with her household to observe her nephew William’s birthday. The household decided to sanction the find the “William Diamond” successful his honor.

The household began their hunt connected the northbound broadside of the park’s 37.5-acre hunt country adjacent the Prospector Trailhead. After digging and sifting done respective buckets of dirt, Madison spotted an “unusual oblong, shiny stone” successful her screen. She told officials she initially thought the find was “really neat” but didn’t fishy it was a diamond.

“I honestly thought it was excessively large to beryllium a diamond!” Madison said. Park unit aboriginal identified the chromatic arsenic a brownish diamond. Park interpreter Emma O’Neal explained the gem’s colour is the effect of a earthy process.

“Brown diamonds from the Crater hap owed to a process called integrative deformation, which creates structural defects during a diamond’s enactment oregon question successful magma,” O’Neal said. “These defects bespeak reddish and greenish light, combining to marque the diamond look brown.”

CHECK IT OUT! A household recovered a 2.79-carat diamond portion connected a day travel successful Arkansas.

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The park, located successful southwest Arkansas, is the lone nationalist diamond excavation successful the satellite wherever visitors tin support what they find. The hunt country is the eroded aboveground of a diamond-bearing volcanic crater. Park unit bash not supply appraisals for gems, truthful the monetary worth of the William Diamond is unknown.

Madison’s astir 3-carat diamond is the third-largest recovered astatine the Arkansas parkland this year

Officials confirmed Madison’s astir 3-carat find is the third-largest diamond registered astatine the  Arkansas parkland successful 2025, surpassing a 2.30-carat chromatic discovered successful July. It is 1 of 403 diamonds recovered truthful acold this year, 4 of which person weighed implicit 2 carats.

The parkland has a agelong past of important discoveries. Visitors person discovered implicit 75,000 diamonds since it became a authorities parkland successful 1972. The astir communal colors unearthed are white, brown, and yellow.

The largest diamond ever recovered successful the United States, the 40.23-carat “Uncle Sam,” was discovered connected the aforesaid onshore successful 1924, agelong earlier it was a authorities park. That diamond is present portion of the Smithsonian’s postulation successful Washington, D.C.

Notable caller finds see a 7.46-carat diamond recovered by a French visitant successful 2024 and a 3.81-carat brownish diamond unearthed by a Minnesota antheral earlier this year. The parkland continues to gully thousands of tourists annually, each hoping for akin luck.