Crater of Diamonds State Park
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Crater of Diamonds State Park
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.jpg) Park visitors looking for diamonds |
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| location | Pike County in Arkansas (USA) | |
| surface | 3.69 km² | |
| Geographical location | 34 ° 2 ′ N , 93 ° 40 ′ W | |
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| Setup date | 1972 | |
| administration | Division of State Parks, Arkansas Dept. of Parks and Tourism | |
The Crater of Diamonds State Park is a state park near Murfreesboro in Pike County in the US state of Arkansas . The eight largest diamond mine in the world is located in the park. It is open to the public and visitors are allowed to keep any stones they find.
Park
The Crater of Diamonds State Park is a 3.69 km² area that sits on top of a 95 million year old eroded Lamproit volcanic vent . The park is public and for a small fee mineral collectors , treasure hunters and ordinary visitors can dig for diamonds and other precious and semi-precious stones. Park visitors find an average of over 600 diamonds a year, which is almost two diamonds a day. The stones found may be kept regardless of type, weight and value. In addition to the eponymous diamonds, amethysts , jasper , agates and quartz as well as 40 other types of minerals have also been found.
The crater itself is an area of 14.2 hectares that is regularly plowed in order to bring the gemstones from deeper layers directly to the surface. The park's facilities consist of a visitor center where there is information about the park and the geological background and a Discovery Center where the necessary accessories for the prospecting work can be borrowed, information about diamonds and other gemstones is provided and stones found are assessed and certified can be. For hikers, there is a two-mile loop trail on the Little Missouri River .
history
John Huddleston found the first diamond in 1906. Several attempts at commercial exploitation of the mine failed.
Shortly after the first diamond was found, a "diamond rush" set in and gave Murfreesboro a soaring flight. The hotels had to reject 10,000 overnight stays a year. These homeless people set up a tent town near the mine , which they hopefully named Kimberley, like the famous Kimberley diamond mine in South Africa. In 1924 the diamond Uncle Sam was found.
From 1952 to 1972 the crater was a privately guided tourist attraction. Between 1964 and 1968, Roscoe Johnston leased 49 acres (19.6 hectares) of diamond-bearing land adjacent to the crater and marketed it as the Arkansas Diamond Mine. during this time the " Star of Murfreesboro " and the "Phillips 66" were found.
In 1972 the state of Arkansas acquired the crater to make it a state park and since then over 25,000 diamonds have been found there
With the increasing number of diamond discoveries and the fact that Arkansas was the first state in which diamonds could be found in such a natural way, the diamond became increasingly associated with the state. The diamond shape of the cut diamond was included in the design of the flag of Arkansas in 1912 .
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- Arkansas State Parks, 2005, Crater of Diamonds State Park brochure (PDF file; 387 kB)
