A seasoned gem hunter has unearthed a 3.29-carat diamond at an Arkansas state park, the stone being the largest found at the site since September 2021.
David Anderson of Murfreesboro, Arkansas, a regular visitor of his hometown’s Crater of Diamonds State Park, was wet-sifting soil at the park on March 4 when he noticed something sparkling in the gravel. Anderson had concentrated his search on the west drain of the site’s 37.5-acre plot.
Anderson had found a brown diamond, one of three colors—white, brown, and yellow—of diamond that occur at the site, with white being most abundant and yellow the least. As is common practice among visitors to the park, Anderson chose to name his diamond; he picked BUD, standing for “Big Ugly Diamond,” for the pitted, earth-toned gem.
“Mr. Anderson’s diamond is about the size of an English pea, with a light brown color and octahedron shape,” park interpreter Tayler Markham said. “It has a metallic shine typical of all diamonds found at the park, with a partially resorbed surface and lots of inclusions.
“Magma in volcanic pipe melted the diamonds’ outer surfaces and gave them smooth, rounded edges. Larger diamonds like Mr. Anderson’s may have rough areas on the surface, but you can still find signs of resorption on the corners and edges.”
BUD was not Anderson’s first find at the park, nor his largest. In fact, the experienced gem hunter has unearthed over 400 gemstones since his first visit in 2007, including a 3.83-carat yellow diamond in December 2011 and a 6.19-carat white diamond in April 2014.
He plans to sell his 3.29-carat brown diamond locally, as he does with most of his finds.
Anderson’s is the largest brown diamond found at Crater of Diamonds State Park since the 9.07-carat Kinard Friendship Diamond was found on Labor Day 2020 by Kevin Kinard of Maumelle, Arkansas. It is the largest of any gem found there since a visitor from Granite Bay, California, discovered a 4.38-carat yellow diamond in September 2021.
The first-ever diamonds produced from Crater were found by former landowner and farmer John Huddleston in 1906. Since then, a whopping 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed. The site became an Arkansas State Park in 1972, and one to two diamonds are found by park visitors every single day.
