Southwest Arkansas Radio Radio Stations KMTB, KNAS and KBHC in Nashville, Arkansas
By Waymon Cox
Greetings from Crater of Diamonds State Park! New visitors often have many questions their first time searching for diamonds. Here are answers to a few of the more common queries that we hear:
What tools can I bring?
Many visitors bring their own tools from home when visiting the Crater of Diamonds. Buckets and shovels are obvious choices, but there are other options that may help in your diamond search. Since most diamonds are found by sifting, some people bring their own screens from home. A small, 1/8″ or 1/16″ mesh will catch most diamonds while sifting dirt. Some visitors also build two or three stackable screens with different mesh sizes to classify sifted gravel by size. Most screen series start with a 1/2″ or 1/4″ on top, with progressively finer mesh in lower screens. This makes it easier to search different sizes of gravel for the metallic luster of a diamond.
What’s the difference between a basic kit and an advanced kit?
We hear this question often from first-time visitors who don’t bring their own equipment or want to rent tools at the park. The park rents two “kits” for wet sifting. The basic kit contains a bucket, shovel, and screen set and is recommended for up to three people.
The advanced kit includes everything in the basic kit, plus a round screen called a saruca. The saruca has a bowl shape to resift gravel and concentrate heavy rocks and minerals in the bottom of the screen. After sifting in water, the saruca is flipped upside-down on a table, so that heavy gravel (and hopefully a diamond) appears on top of the resulting gravel pile. While most first-time visitors rent the basic kit, larger families or “regular” park visitors often use the advanced kit to wet sift more efficiently.
How deep should I dig?
The answer depends on how much work you want to put into diamond mining. For casual visitors, we recommend sticking to the top four to six inches of dirt in lower parts of the diamond search area. During a hard rain, water washes through the plowed field, collecting heavy gravel and leaving it in low-lying areas. Diamonds are fairly heavy for their size and are often found near other heavy rocks and minerals, such as jasper, hematite, calcite, and quartz.
Some miners dig for gravel beds that may be buried several feet underground, deposited by streams and other waterways that ran across the surface of the crater long ago. They often use long metal rods to probe the soil and find buried gravel layers to excavate. This method requires more work and is usually easier when two or more people dig together. Holes that are more than four feet deep must be dug with specific parameters for safety, and all holes must be backfilled before the search area closes each day. The park provides a list of rules and regulations that provide more information about digging holes.
Our website at www.CraterofDiamondsStatePark.com has an FAQ page with answers to many more common questions about the park. Now that spring is here, we are looking forward to meeting lots of new visitors in the coming weeks and helping them have an exciting experience at the Crater!
Search area last plowed: March 19, 2019
Most recent significant rain: March 14, 2019
Diamond finds for the weeks of March 10 & 17, 2019 (100 points = 1 carat):
March 10 – Larry Speakman, Flower Mound, TX, 17 pt. yellow; Dave Rhodes, Hot Springs, AR, 28 pt. white; Jack Pearadin, Murfreesboro, AR, 78 pt. white
March 12 – Jack Pearadin, Murfreesboro, AR, 2 pt. white, 4 pt. white; Sean Dalton, North Attleborough, MA, 4 pt. white
March 16 – Jack Pearadin, Murfreesboro, AR, 6 pt. white; Robert McDonald, Cedar Park, TX, 2 pt. white
March 17 – Gordon & Jennifer Bopp, Glenwood, AR, 7 pt. white; Amanda Jackson, Rosebud, AR, 32 pt. white
March 18 – John Tester, Willmar, MN, 4 pt. white
March 19 – Brayton DeCook, Stewartville, MN, 2 pt. white; Lexi DeCook, Racine, MN, 3 pt. white; Chloe DeCook, Stewartville, MN, 3 pt. white; Chloe, Lexi, & Brayton DeCook, Stewartville, MN, 4 pt. yellow; Kylie Dajani, Fayetteville, AR, 5 pt. yellow
March 20 – Derek DeCook, Stewartville, MN, 4 pt. white, 6 pt. yellow, 29 pt. white
March 21 – Jennifer Bopp, Glenwood, AR, 6 pt. white; Anita Cowin, Claremore, OK, 6 pt. yellow; Megan Heffron, Mustang, OK, 13 pt. white; Edward Lambert, Granbury, TX, 3 pt. white, 12 pt. brown
March 22 – Cindy Kessler, Wildwood, MO, 46 pt. white; David Robb, Wentzville, MO, 3 pt. white; Arthur Munoz, Nashville, TN, 30 pt. white
March 23 – Duane Hurley, Morrilton, AR, 1.44 ct. white
