MURFREESBORO, Ark. — After searching the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Ark., for over a decade, longtime visitor Adam Hardin finally found his own large diamond to take home, and it was the biggest find so far this year.
Hardin has searched the state park for diamonds hundreds of times. Then on April 10, while sifting through the soil on the park's 37.5-acres, he found his gem.
"When I saw it, I said, ‘Wow, that’s a big diamond!’”
Hardin took his gem to the park’s Diamond Discovery Center where staff registered it as a 2.38-carat brown diamond.
“Mr. Hardin’s diamond is about the size of a pinto bean, with a coffee brown color and a rounded shape," Park Interpreter Waymon Cox said. "It has a metallic shine typical of all diamonds found at the park, with a few inclusions and crevices running all along the surface.”
Hardin said he first learned about the unique Crater of Diamonds State Park over a decade ago and has had a longstanding competition with a friend about who could find the biggest diamond.
"I found a big one, then he got a 1.79-carat, and we were joking about who would find the next big diamond and be ‘king of the mountain,'" Hardin said. "As soon as I found this one, I had a feeling I had him beat. Now he's trying to find a bigger one, but I'm planning on staying on top!”
Hardin’s diamond is the largest found at the park since last September, when a visitor from Granite Bay, Calif., discovered a 4.38-carat yellow gem. He says he plans to sell it to a local shop.
According to Arkansas State Parks, over 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed at the Crater of Diamonds since the first diamonds were discovered in 1906.
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