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6 carat yellow diamond in front of Crater of Diamonds State Park sign in Arkansas
Crater of Diamonds State Park in Pike County, Arkansas is one of the few places on earth where anyone can roll up for the price of park admission and find a diamond in the dirt. Most diamonds around the globe are extracted from privately-owned mines but in Arkansas, anyone who wants to go sifting through the gravel in search of diamonds can do so!
Earlier this year, U.S. Navy reservist Jack Pearadin was live streaming on TikTok when he found a 6.03-carat diamond that could wind up being worth $1 million according to a recent feature from ABC News. Jack has found over 300 diamonds at the Crater of Diamonds State Park but nothing quite like this one until now!
U.S. Navy Reservist Finds 6+ Carat Diamond At Crater of Diamonds State Park In Arkansas
This 6.03-carat yellow diamond is one of the largest diamonds ever found at the park and it was aptly named ‘The American Dream Diamond.’ It still pales in comparison to the largest diamond ever found at Carter of Diamonds State Park which was a 40.23-carat diamond nicknamed ‘Uncle Sam’ found back in 1924, decades before the state park was established in 1972.
Here is the moment he pulled the once-in-a-lifetime rock (here is the TikTok link if the video below doesn’t work for you):
@adventure_jack 💛💎 What a lot of people have been waiting for! The Live video of me flipping the 6.03 Carat Canary Chameleon Yellow Beauty, The Pearadin Schumacher American Dream Diamond that I found with Michael Schumacher The Driftless Crystal! I was originally thinking this was going to be a 1 carat yellow macle, turned out to be way more magnificent…. Sorry for any profanities 😅 PG13 #TheCraterOfDiamonds #Arkansas #Rockhound #WISCONSIN #fyp @The Driftless Crystal
Jack Pearadin told ABC News he has been searching for diamonds at the Arkansas state park since 2013 and most of the 300+ diamonds he’s found have been sold online. Anywhere from 400-800 diamonds are found each year at the park in Murfreesboro.
Since the park started tracking in 1972, 37,377 diamonds have been found as of the start of this year. So that number has certainly grown since but it provides good context. On average, the state park welcomes between 120,000 and 180,000 visitors annually or roughly between 330 and 500 visitors daily with over 1 diamond per day found. Those might be slim odds but they are still A LOT BETTER than the odds of finding a precious gemstone in your backyard!
One of my favorite stories out of the state park came 13+ years ago when a 12-year-old discovered a 5.16-carat stone… Must be nice!
According to the recent feature from ABC News, the average retail price for a 0.17-carat yellow diamond found at the state park is around $700. And a 6-carat diamond can easily fetch $250K but depending on the quality could be worth a million dollars due to the unique origin story of the stones.
If, like me, you have been wanting to visit the state park for years then you can find information on it here.