- A 7-year-old girl celebrated her birthday by visiting the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas.
- During a break from the heat, she unexpectedly discovered a 2.95-carat diamond.
- According to the park’s policy, she is allowed to keep the diamond.
During her 7th birthday visit to the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, Aspen Brown received an unexpected gift.
While seeking relief from the heat, Brown stumbled upon a brown diamond the size of a green pea, weighing 2.95 carats. This remarkable find was reported by Arkansas State Parks.
“She got hot and wanted to sit down for a minute, so she walked over to some big rocks by the fence line,” shared her father Luther Brown with the park agency. “Next thing I know, she was running to me, saying ‘Dad! Dad! I found one!'”
According to Aaron Palke, a research scientist for the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), finding a diamond of this size in the park’s 37.5-acre diamond search area is exceptionally rare.
Last year, Palke and his team spent two and a half days at the park but did not find any diamonds. On average, visitors discover one to two diamonds each day, although they are typically small in size.
“Most of the ones you find are smaller than a rice grain,” Palke commented on the park’s diamonds. In technical terms, diamonds typically range from .05 to .20 carats in the park, with one carat equaling one-fifth of a gram.
Palke described Brown’s discovery as very unusual for Arkansas, and attributed the rarity to the state park’s unique opportunity for the public to search for diamonds and keep them.
Stephen Morisseau, GIA’s director of communications, explained that the diamonds at the park formed deep in the earth billions of years ago. They emerged to the surface around 95 million years ago due to a volcanic eruption.
Since 1906, over 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed at the Crater of Diamonds, with John Huddleston, the former landowner, discovering the first ones. After becoming an Arkansas State Park in 1972, visitors have found approximately half of all the diamonds, including notable finds like the 40.23-carat Uncle Sam diamond in 1924.
In recent years, a 33-year-old man found a 9.07-carat diamond, while a woman discovered a 4-carat yellow diamond the following year.
The value of Brown’s 2.95-carat diamond is unclear due to the rarity of Arkansas diamonds. Palke remarked that they are considered collectors’ items and not appraised in the same way as commercial diamonds.
Thanks to the park’s “finders, keepers” policy, Brown is allowed to take her diamond home. Her family intends to name the gem Aspen Diamond.
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