NEWS RELEASE: 04/01/2010
VISITOR FROM PENNSYLVANIA FINDS FLAWLESS 3.17-CARAT YELLOW DIAMOND
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Joan Ellison, public information officer
Arkansas Deaprtment of Parks and Tourism
Contact: Justin Dorsey 870-285-3113
Pennsylvania resident Patti Kubli saw an Arkansas commemorative quarter and noticed the diamond in its design. She thought maybe there were diamonds in Arkansas. So her brother, who studied geology, looked on the Internet and found out about Arkansas’s diamond site, the Crater of Diamonds State Park. Patti and their sister drove from Pennsylvania to visit the Crater of Diamonds. Today marked their first visit to the park. After surface searching in the park’s diamond search area for approximately 30 minutes, Patti found a flawless, 3.17-carat yellow diamond. She found the gem in the middle of the 37 ½-acre search area around 10:00 a.m. when she noticed it shining in the dirt. Kubli named the diamond after her mother, calling it The Dorie Diamond.
As her diamond was being weighed and certified by the park staff, Kubli noted that her brother didn’t join his sisters on the trip. “Boy is he going to be sorry,” she said with a smile.
According to Park Interpreter Margi Jenks, “Slightly pear-shaped, this diamond is an intense canary yellow and it’s extremely shiny. It has its own light within.” Jenks said, “Ms. Kubli’s diamond would be so lovely set in a ring mounting or worn on a necklace. And, the gem could either be cut or left as is. This diamond could be mounted in its raw natural form because it is so beautiful just the way nature formed it.” She noted it was about the size of a jellybean.
Jenks continued, “The average is about two diamond finds a day at the Crater of Diamonds. Ms. Kubli’s gem was the 108th diamond found so far this year at the park. It’s the largest diamond find at the park since a 3.02-carat white diamond was found in November and a 5.75-carat white diamond named the Arabian Knight Diamond was found by a park visitor from Alabama in April 2009.”
The 37 ½-acre search area at the park is the eroded surface of the world’s eighth largest, diamond-bearing deposit in the world in surface area. The field is plowed regularly by park staff to bring more diamonds to the surface. The last plowing occurred on March 15.
She noted that the park policy is finder-keepers. “What park visitors find in the diamond search area is theirs to keep.” Crater of Diamonds State Park is the world’s only diamond-producing site open to the public. Diamonds come in all colors of the rainbow. The three most common colors found at the park are white, brown and yellow, in that order. The park staff provides free identification and certification of diamonds. Park interpretive programs and exhibits explain the site’s geology and history and offer tips on recognizing diamonds in the rough.
In total, over 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed at Arkansas’s diamond site since the first diamonds were found here in 1906 by John Huddleston, the farmer who at that time owned the land long before it became an Arkansas state park. 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 Star of Murfreesboro (34.25 carats) and the Star of Arkansas (15.33 carats).
The largest diamond of the 28,000 discovered by park visitors since the Crater became an Arkansas state park in 1972 was the 16.37-carat Amarillo Starlight. W. W. Johnson of Amarillo, Texas, found this spectacular gem-quality, white diamond in 1975.
In June 1981, the 8.82-carat Star of Shreveport was added to the growing list of large valuable stones found at the Crater.
Another notable diamond from the Crater of Diamonds that has received much national attention is the 1.09-carat, D-flawless Strawn-Wagner Diamond. Discovered in 1990 by Shirley Strawn of nearby Murfreesboro, this white gem weighed 3.03 carats in the rough before being cut to perfection in 1997 by the renowned diamond firm Lazare Kaplan International of New York. The gem is the most perfect diamond ever certified in the laboratory of the American Gem Society. Renovations are currently underway at the Crater of Diamonds State Park visitor center. When they are completed, this diamond will once again be on display there.
Another gem from the Crater, the flawless 4.25-carat Kahn Canary diamond, discovered at the park in 1977, has been on exhibit at many cities around the U.S. and overseas. The uncut, triangular-shape diamond was featured in an illustrious jewelry exhibition in Antwerp, Belgium in 1997 that included precious stones from throughout the world including the Kremlin collection, the Vatican, Cartier and Christies. And, in late 1997, the Kahn Canary was featured in another prestigious exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in New York entitled The Nature of Diamonds. Former First Lady Hillary Clinton borrowed the Kahn Canary from its owner, Stan Kahn of Pine Bluff, and wore it in a special, Arkansas-inspired ring setting designed by Henry Dunay of New York. Mrs. Clinton chose to wear the gem as a special way to represent Arkansas’s diamond site at the galas celebrating both of Bill Clinton’s presidential inaugurals.
Other semi-precious gems and minerals found at the Crater of Diamonds include amethyst, garnet, peridot, jasper, agate, calcite, barite, and quartz. Over 40 different rocks and minerals are unearthed at the Crater making it a rock hound's delight.
Crater of Diamonds State Park is located two miles southeast of Murfreesboro. It is one of the 52 state parks administered by the State Parks Division of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.
For more information, contact: Justin Dorsey, park superintendent, Crater of Diamonds State Park, 209 State Park Road, Murfreesboro, Arkansas 71958. Phone: 870-285-3113.
E-mail: justin.dorsey@arkansas.gov. Or visit craterofdiamondsstatepark.com.
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NEWS RELEASE: 10/21/2009
Arkansan Finds 2.93-carat Brown Diamond at the Crater of Diamonds State Park
For Immediate ReleaseMurfreesboro -- Royce Walker of Walker Sand and Gravel in Lockesburg is the local private contractor who is presently conducting this year’s trenching operation at Arkansas’s diamond site, the Crater of Diamonds State Park. Starting in 2005, the park has contracted each year for excavation work by heavy machinery to uncover new material in the park’s 37 ½-acre diamond search area for park visitors to search. This annual trenching operation opens up new diamond-bearing material at depth. And, in addition, the material that’s excavated during the trenching is spread on the ground nearby doubling the chances for more diamond finds. Around noon yesterday as Walker was stepping across the search area towards his high track bulldozer to give his son, Bobby, a lunch break, he looked down and saw something shiny in the dirt. He reached down and picked up the stone, a 2.93-carat, dark honey brown diamond. Shiny on one side and metallic looking on the other, it was immediately recognized by Walker as a diamond. About the size of a pinto bean, the diamond has a broken edge indicating it’s a broken segment of a larger diamond.
Walker saw one of the park’s regular prospectors, a gentleman from Harrison, searching nearby. He showed his brown diamond to the prospector and said, "What does this look like to you?” The prospector replied, "You just found a three-carat diamond!" Smiling, he continued, "I’ve been looking for that for a year!"
This year’s trenching by Walker and his son using a scraper tractor and bulldozer is being conducted in the West Drain area of the search area, the eroded surface of the world’s eighth largest, diamond-bearing deposit in surface area. However, Walker found his diamond on the area’s east side while doing work there where last year’s trenching was done. According to Walker, he’s considering naming his diamond the Cherokee Princess to honor his mother who passed away last year. An American Indian, her family were Cherokee from North Carolina.
Park Interpreter Margi Jenks said that Walker’s diamond is the 820th diamond found so far this year at the Crater of Diamonds. This is the largest diamond found at the park since the 5.75-carat white, Arabian Knight diamond was found on April 28 by Mike Burns of Arab, Alabama. He named his gem to recognize his hometown High School Football Team there in Arab. Right before Easter, Glenn Worthington of Springdale found 2.04-carat yellow gem he named the Easter Sunrise Diamond.
Crater of Diamonds State Park is the world’s only diamond-producing site open to the public. Diamonds come in all colors of the rainbow. The three most common colors found at the park are white, brown and yellow, in that order.
An average of two diamonds a day is unearthed by park visitors at the Crater of Diamonds. During 2008 a total of 946 diamonds were found at the park. Twenty seven of those diamonds weighed over one carat.
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. 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 Star of Murfreesboro (34.25 carats) and the Star of Arkansas (15.33 carats).
The largest diamond of the 28,000 discovered by park visitors since the Crater became an Arkansas state park in 1972 was the 16.37-carat Amarillo Starlight. W. W. Johnson of Amarillo, Texas, found this spectacular gem-quality, white diamond in 1975.
In June 1981, the 8.82-carat Star of Shreveport was added to the growing list of large valuable stones found at the Crater.
The park staff provides free identification and certification of diamonds. Park interpretive programs and exhibits explain the site’s geology and history and offer tips on recognizing diamonds in the rough.
Other semi-precious gems and minerals found at the Crater of Diamonds include amethyst, garnet, peridot, jasper, agate, calcite, barite, and quartz. Over 40 different rocks and minerals are unearthed at the Crater making it a rock hound's delight.
Crater of Diamonds State Park is located two miles southeast of Murfreesboro. It is one of the 52 state parks administered by the State Parks Division of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.
For more information, contact: Justin Dorsey, park superintendent, Crater of Diamonds State Park, 209 State Park Road, Murfreesboro, Arkansas 71958. Phone: 870-285-3113. E-mail: justin.dorsey@arkansas.gov. Or visit craterofdiamondsstatepark.com.
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NEWS RELEASE: 05/30/2009
Yorkie Finds White 1.11-carat Diamond at Arkansas's Crater of Diamonds State Park on Saturday, May 30
May 30, 2009
For Immediate ReleaseMurfreesboro --
Each year, hundreds of visitors come to Arkansas's diamond site, the Crater of Diamonds State Park, with what has often been called man’s best friend. Many different breeds of dogs accompany their owners to the park. It's a common site at the park. However, a not so common occasion is when one of the dogs finds a diamond. On Saturday, May 30, a two-year-old yorkie named Tigger visited Crater of Diamonds State Park for the first time and found a beautiful, white 1.11-carat diamond.
Tigger's owner, Gerald Brown of De Queen, Arkansas, has visited the Crater of Diamonds numerous times over the past months with human companions. This past weekend, however, Brown was destined to search alone in the park's diamond search area while his wife visited family in Texas. But as he was preparing leave home for the park, he saw Tigger, his small gray Yorkie, "giving me the puppy dog eyes,” said Brown. “I just couldn’t leave her behind.”
So, Brown and Tigger headed to Murfreesboro. By 2:00 p.m. on the afternoon of May 30, they were spending their first day together at the park. As he was sifting dirt in the park's diamond search area, Brown noticed his dog chewing on something. “I thought she had a wasp or some sort of bug in her mouth,” he said of the dog’s actions, “and I went over to get a better look at what she had.” As Brown approached Tigger, the dog dropped the object and the sun flashed on its shiny exterior. At first glance, Brown throught it was a piece of glass. “I reached down and tried to get it from her and she started growling at me, so I knocked it away and then picked it up. After I really got a good look at it, I said to myself, ‘This has to be a diamond!’”
The icy white gem weighs 1.11 carats and is about the size of a pencil eraser. The stone has a beautiful octahedral crystal shape. The park staff presented Brown with a card bearing Tigger’s, the finder's name, certifying the stone as a genuine diamond from the Crater of Diamonds.
When asked about future plans for the diamond, Brown replied that he isn’t sure what they’ll do with the gem, but he’ll definitely never go diamond prospecting again without Tigger “The Diamond-Digger!”
The park policy is finder-keepers. What park visitors find in the diamond search area is theirs to keep. The search area at the Crater of Diamonds is a 37 ½-acre plowed field, the eroded surface of the eighth largest diamond-bearing deposit in the world in surface area. It is the world’s only diamond-producing site open to the public. Diamonds come in all colors of the rainbow. The three most common colors found at the park are white, brown and yellow, in that order.
Other semi-precious gems and minerals found at the Crater of Diamonds include amethyst, garnet, peridot, jasper, agate, calcite, barite and quartz. Over 40 different rocks and minerals are unearthed at the Crater making it a rock hound's delight.
Crater of Diamonds State Park is located two miles southeast of Murfreesboro. It is one of the 52 state parks administered by the State Parks Division of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.
For more information, contact: Tom Stolarz, park superintendent, Crater of Diamonds State Park, 209 State Park Road, Murfreesboro, Arkansas 71958. Phone: 870-285-3113. E-mail: tom.stolarz@arkansas.gov. Or visit craterofdiamondsstatepark.com.
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