Home REGIONAL Arkansas man finds 9-carat diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park

Arkansas man finds 9-carat diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park

by MyParisTexas
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An Arkansas man who had been visiting Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park since he was in the second grade recently dug up the second-largest diamond ever registered at the park since 1972. 

According to a press release, Kevin Kinard, a 33-year-old bank branch manager from Maumelle, Ark., found the 9.07-carat diamond on Labor Day

“I only wet sifted for about 10 minutes before I started walking up and down the plowed rows. Anything that looked like a crystal, I picked it up and put it in my bag.”

Kinard and his friends brought equipment with them to wet sift, but Kinard preferred surface searching. 

While searching in the southeast portion of the diamond search area, Kinard picked up a marble-sized crystal that had a rounded, dimpled shape. 

He said, “It kind of looked interesting and shiny, so I put it in my bag and kept searching. I just thought it might’ve been glass.”

After a few hours of searching, Kinard and his friends stopped by the park’s Diamond Discovery Center, where park staff identifies visitor finds and register diamonds. 

“I almost didn’t have them check my finds, because I didn’t think I had found anything. My friend had hers checked, though, so I went ahead and had them check mine, too.”

An employee identified Kinard’s rocks and minerals but sat his rounded, dimpled find aside to carry into the office for closer examination. 

After a few minutes, park managers brought Kinard into the office and revealed that he had discovered a diamond weighing more than nine carats. 

“I honestly teared up when they told me. I was in complete shock!”

According to Assistant Superintendent Dru Edmonds, “Mr. Kinard’s diamond is very large, with a brandy brown color. It has a rounded, dewdrop shape and a metallic shine typical of all Crater diamonds.”

Edmonds continued, “Conditions in the diamond search area were perfect for Mr. Kinard to find his diamond. Park staff plowed the search area on August 20, just a few days before Tropical Storm Laura dropped more than two inches of rain in the park. The sun was out when Mr. Kinard visited, and he walked just the right path to notice the sunlight reflecting off his diamond.”

The park, only two and a half hours from Paris, is a hotspot for Lamar County locals with Bogata resident, Miranda Hollingshead digging up a 3.72-carat yellow diamond in August 2019. 

“I was sitting in the shade, watching a YouTube video on how to find diamonds,” Hollingshead told Arkansas State Parks. “I looked over at my kid for a second, and when I looked down, I saw it mixed in with other rocks.”

Hollingshead had only been searching for an hour when she picked up the diamond and yelled to her mom, “I think I got one.”

After showing her mom and siblings, Hollingshead carried her find to the Diamond Discovery Center, where park staff registered it as a 3.72-carat yellow diamond.

Turns out, it was the largest yellow diamond found by a visitor since October 2013 when an Oklahoma City visitor picked up a 3.85-carat gem.

When asked whether she plans to sell her gem or keep it as a souvenir, Hollingshead said if she doesn’t sell it, she’ll probably have it mounted in a ring.

Diamonds come in all colors of the rainbow. The three most common colors found at Crater of Diamonds State Park are white, brown, and yellow, in that order.

In total, over 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed at the Crater of Diamonds since the first diamonds were discovered in 1906 by John Huddleston, a farmer who owned the land long before it became an Arkansas State Park in 1972.

For more information about Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park, click here

PHOTO:  Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park

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