John Huddleston, who owned the property, found the first diamond here in 1906. The story goes that John was feeding his hogs when he saw some shiny specks in the dirt. When he washed the dirt to see if the flakes were gold, they floated away, proving to be mica. However, in the gravel in the bottom of his washing pan were two unusual shiny stones, one white - one yellow, which he had never seen before. He took the shiny stones to Murfreesboro and showed them to the bank president, who sent them to a Little Rock jeweler. The jeweler sent the stones to Tiffany's in New York, where they were certified as gem quality diamonds, a 3.0 carat white diamond and a 1.5 carat yellow diamond.

Shortly after his discovery, John sold the property to three Little Rock men for $36,000.00. His reasoning was that there were six people in his family, and $6,000.00 each should take care of them for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, this was not the case and John died a pauper, but was believed to have said he had no regrets.

A diamond rush developed as soon as the word of the diamond discovery got out. It is said that the Conway Hotel in Murfreesboro turned away over 10,000 people who could not be accommodated the first year of the discovery. The tent city of Kimberly sprang up between the diamond discovery and Murfreesboro.

From 1907 through the late 1930's, several commercial mining operations were tried, all failed. Partially due to no one person or one company owning all of the diamond deposit. At one point there were four commercial mining operations working the 80 acre deposit. Another reason the mining ventures failed was due to the lack of diamond mining knowledge and equipment in America. People had to go to Africa to learn the business and import equipment.

In 1949 the first real attempt was made to open the diamond deposit as a tourist attraction. The land was leased to Howard Millar and opened as the Diamond Preserve of America, and later changed to the Crater of Diamonds. The adjacent property passed through several hands until Mrs. Wilkinson leased the property and opened the Big Mine. Later, Mrs. Wilkinson sold her lease to Roscoe Johnson, who changed the name of his attraction to the Arkansas Diamond Mine.

Finally, in 1969, both properties were bought by General Earth Minerals of Dallas, Texas. This was the first time in the Crater's history that one company owned the entire diamond deposit. The company never operated the mine commercially, but let it run as a tourist attraction.

In 1972, the land was sold to the State of Arkansas for $750.000.00, and the Crater of Diamonds State Park was established.

The "Uncle Sam" Diamond is the largest diamond ever found at this site as well as the largest diamond ever found in North America. It was found in 1924 by a worker at the Arkansas Diamond Corporation. The white diamond weighed 40.23 carats rough. It was cut into and emerald shaped diamond weighing 12.42 carats.

The "Star of Arkansas" was found in 1956 by Mrs. A.L. Parker of Dallas, Texas. The rough weight was 15.33 carats. The white diamond was cut into a marquise shaped diamond weighing 8.27 carats.

The "Amarillo Starlight" Diamond, the largest diamond found since becoming a State Park, was found in 1975 by Mr. W.W. Johnson of Amarillo, Texas. The white diamond weighed 16.37 carats rough. Later the diamond was cut into a marquise shaped diamond weighing 7.54 carats

The "Kahn Canary" Diamond, a flawless 4.25 carat deep yellow diamond found in 1977. The diamond is owned by Stanley Kahn of Kahn's Jewelers in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Mr. Kahn mounted the uncut, triangular pillow-shaped stone in a unique 18K gold and platinum mounting, for Mrs. Hillary Clinton to wear to President Clinton's first Inauguration as the 42nd President of the United States in 1993.

The "Star of Shreveport" Diamond was found by Carol Blankenship in 1981. This white diamond is the second largest diamond found since the site has been a State Park. The diamond weighed 8.82 carats. Mr. Blankenship had the rough diamond mounted in the middle of a gold horseshoe pendent.

In April 1998 the largest diamond found was a 7.28 carats white diamond. The diamond was found while surface searching by a lady from Louisiana, found about 3:00 pm on her first day.

The largest diamond found so far this year was found on June 28, 2000. Harold Lay found a 5.57 carat white diamond whild digging in the East drain. The diamond was about 5/8 inches long with a frosted color. Harold is a regular diamond hunter, prospecting about 6 days a week. The second largest diamond of 2000 was found on May 15. Marshal Rieff from Fayetteville, AR found a 5.50 carat white diamond, which was about the size of a jelly bean. Marshal has has sent his diamond to New York to be cut. He expects to get a cut diamond between 2 and 3 carats when finished. The diamond could turn out to be flawless.

Possibly the most notable diamond ever found at the Crater is the "Strawn/Wagner" Diamond. The most notable feature of this diamond is that it was cut into a "perfect diamond." The white diamond was found in 1993 by Shirley Strawn of Murfreesboro and weighed 3.03 carats. Mrs. Strawn waited until 1998 to cut the stone. The diamond was cut into a brillian shaped diamond weighing 1.09 carats. The American Gem Society graded the diamond a 'D' Flawless, 0/0/0 diamond in April 1998. Peter Yantzer, the laboratory director for AGS, said this diamond was the most perfect diamond this laboratory had ever certified. He was the first to say the diamond was a "one-in-a-billion" diamond.

Bill Underwood of Underwoods Fine Jewelers of Fayetteville set the diamond into a 100% pure platinum ring with a slight pure 24 carat gold trim. The setting also has two 24 carat gold apple blossoms on each side of the diamond.

The diamond was purchased by the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism in July 1999 for $34,700. The diamond is often shown at the Crater of Diamonds State Park.

Why are Diamonds Here?

The diamond search area is actually the eroded top of a volcanic pipe. Over 100 million years ago a volcanic eruption originating as deep as 70 miles, formed diamonds and transported them to the surface of the earth. During the eruption, conditions were right for carbon atoms to come together and crystallize forming diamonds. Not all Lamporite deposits contain diamonds, but it so happens that this one does.

What do Diamonds look like?

Color: The most common colors of diamonds are white, yellow and brown.

The park offers free rock and mineral identification at the Visitor Center. Diamonds are weighed and certified free of charge for the finder.

How do I search for diamonds?

How you search for diamonds usually depends on how much time you have to search or how hard you want to work.

There are three methods of diamond searching. Surface searching is walking up and down the rows of dirt looking for diamonds lying on top of the ground. This is the most productive method following a hard rain. Rain washes the soil away, leaving diamonds and other rocks and minerals exposed on the surface.

Most visitors like to dig around in the soil and screen the diamond dirt. This usually involves searching through the first six inches to one foot of soil. Visitors can turn the soil over with a small hand tool while looking in the loose soil. Some visitors like to use a screen to sift the soil. Take a small amount of soil and put in a screen and shake the screen vigorously. The remaining material in the screen is then slowly looked through. When the weather is warm, visitors will wash the soil in a screen rather than dry screening. When the diamond field is wet or muddy, the soil will not sift through the screen. Therefore, you will have to wash the dirt at one of the two washing pavilions.

The third method of diamond hunting requires a lot of hard work and previous experience. This method us usually preferred by the repeat or regular visitor. This method involves the digging of deep holes, removal of the right type soil, washing the soil in a series of screens and patiently hand sorting the concentrated gravels from the screens. The people are looking for low areas in the field where diamonds may have settled out over the years, or they are looking for tailings from the earlier commercial mining plants of the 20's and 30's. Tailings are the waste gravel that went out of the plant. The diamond recovery methods in the early mining plants were very poor, so many small diamonds were not recovered by the plant. They went out of the plant with the waste gravel into a tailing pile. Over the years, these tailing piles are covered by topsoil. The experienced regular hunters look for the tiny gravel, dig them up and wash them again by hand, looking for the small diamonds.

Are the diamonds valuable?

The park staff can identify diamonds, but are not trained nor do they have the equipment to assess the value of a diamond. The monetary value of a diamond rests in the possibility of the diamond being cut. Several large diamonds, from the Crater, have been cut into D Flawless stones, which would bring top dollar. Should you find a large diamond that might be cut, the park staff can provide you with a list of diamond cutters.

Most diamonds found are small diamonds that would not be cut. They will be valued souvenirs of your trip to the Crater. If desired, rough diamonds can be mounted in jewelry and worn. The most popular method of displaying a rough diamond is to have it mounted in a pendent and worn around the neck.

In the local area, rough diamonds value from $1.00 per point to $10.00 per point or more. Therefore, a small souvenir diamond weighing 10 points might sell for $10.00 to $100.00 depending on the quality. However, the true value of a diamond rests with you, the finder.
End of article by Michael Hall...thanks Michael!

To view pictures and documents, see Scrapbook, just below the following index...

Item #1	Sunday field day: Swinging bridge across Prairie Creek. Submitted by Craig L. Johnson. Thanks Craig! Park Interpreter, Crater of Diamonds State Park 209 State Park Road Murfreesboro, AR 71958 phone: (870) 285 3113
Item #2	In diamond field: First primative diamond mine at the crater. Submitted by Craig L. Johnson. Thanks Craig!
Item #3	Mining company at crater: Ozark Diamond Mine Corporation mine. Submitted by Craig L. Johnson. Thanks Craig!
Item #4	Mining company at crater: Arkansas Diamond Company mine. Submitted by Craig L. Johnson. Thanks Craig!
Item #5	Document: Letter from Diamond Field Manager to deed holder. Submitted by Craig L. Johnson. Thanks Craig!
Item #5a	Document: Diamond Field deed and lease. Submitted by Craig L. Johnson. Thanks Craig!
Item #6	Map: Geological Survey, 1916. Submitted by Craig L. Johnson. Thanks Craig!
Item #6a	Map: Geological Survey, 1916...section closeup.
Item #6b	Map: Geological Survey, 1916...section closeup.
Item #6c	Map: Geological Survey, 1916...section closeup.
Item #6d	Map: Geological Survey, 1916...section closeup.
Item #6e	Map: Geological Survey, 1916...section closeup.
Item #7	John Huddleston: He found the first diamonds at the crater, 1906. John Huddleston was son of David Fielding Huddleston and Fannie Carey. Paternal Grandparents were Fielding Huddleston and Mary Shull. Maternal Grandparents were Green Carey and Sallie Burnett. Submitted by Craig L. Johnson. Thanks Craig!
Item #8	Diamond washing pan Submitted by Craig L. Johnson. Thanks Craig!
Item #9	Diamond washing pan Submitted by Craig L. Johnson. Thanks Craig!
Item #10	Diamond washing pan Submitted by Craig L. Johnson. Thanks Craig!
Item #11	John Huddleston Family: If anyone knows the names of those pictured, please email me, Judy Tate. Submitted by Craig L. Johnson. Thanks Craig! Darlene Kleyer Sent the following: Here are the names of the Huddleston children in the family picture! Top left to right: Willie Mae, Eunice F., Delia E, and Mary Elizabeth Bottom left to right: John W., Joe M. (may be short for Josephine), and Sarah A. Joe holding the teddybear, died at age 16. Thanks Darlene!
Item #12	John Huddleston Submitted by Craig L. Johnson. Thanks Craig!

View above indexed Items in the below album,

Left Click on image to view in a larger, seperate window

Search for a photo:

Visit the Crater of Diamonds State Park Homepage

Thank You for visiting my ARFamilies.info site. To contact me specifically about this webpage, send email to: About This Page

For other subject matter, you can reach me at my base email address.
Take Care, Judy Tate