MURFREESBORO, Ark. -- Waymon Cox, park interpreter at Crater of Diamonds State Park, filed this report of 2021 activity at the park.
Last year, visitors from 34 states and one foreign country found 354 diamonds in Arkansas, weighing a total of more than 62 carats. Arkansans found 108 gems, while travelers from outside of the state registered 246.
Guests found 28 diamonds on top of the ground in the park's diamond search area; most of the others were found by either wet or dry sifting.
Visitors registered 151 diamonds during the first five months of 2021. On May 10, Christian Liden, of Poulsbo, WA, registered the first diamond of the year that weighed over two carats, a 2.20 ct. yellow gem he found while wet sifting dirt from the West Drain of the search area. The diamond was light yellow, with a triangular shape and a sparkling, metallic luster. Liden named it the Washington Sunshine, because he said its yellow hue reminded him of the sunlight in his home state.
By the end of summer 2021, park guests had found 255 diamonds, including four weighing over one carat.
Autumn kicked off with a big surprise for one California couple, when Noreen Wredberg and her husband, of Granite Bay, visited the Crater of Diamonds for the first time.
Wredberg was walking on the north side of a central pathway through the search area on Sept. 23 when she spotted something sparkling on top of the ground. Her find turned out to be the largest of the year, a 4.38-carat diamond about the size of a jellybean, with a pear shape and a lemonade yellow color. Wredberg named her gem after her husband's kitten, calling it Lucy's Diamond.
During the final three months of 2021, park guests found 98 more diamonds, including three more weighing over one carat each.
The three most common colors of diamonds found at the Crater are white, brown, and yellow. 248 diamonds registered last year were white (weighing 28.6 carats), 54 were brown (16.67 carats), and 52 were yellow (17.02 carats). Interestingly, all nine of the largest diamonds found last year were yellow or brown in color.
Regardless of size, each diamond discovered at Crater of Diamonds State Park becomes part of its history. This year, the Crater celebrates its 50th year as an Arkansas State Park.
Search area last plowed: Nov. 18, 2021
Most recent significant rain: January 8, 2022
Recent diamond finds (100 points = 1 carat):
Jan. 23 – Ashton Guillet, Lake Charles, Louisiana, 6 pt. white, 12 pt. brown; The Arkansas Diamond Miner, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 3 pt. white, 7 pt. yellow
January 24 – Vanessa Van Aalsburg, Hardy, Arkansas, 24 pt. white.
(For more information contact ArkansasStateParks.com.)
This 4.38 carat gem is Lucy’s Diamond. (Photo courtesy of Crater of Diamonds State Park)