We left Walmart early and headed for Crater of Diamonds State Park. This is the only diamond bearing site in the world that is open to the public. It is a 37 acre plowed field that sits atop an ancient volcano. They believe that 95 million years ago the volcano erupted which caused the diamonds to surface. The first diamonds (2- 5/8 and 1- 3/8 carats) were discovered in 1906 by John Huddleston who was a farmer and owned the property. He sold the diamond property to a mining company for $36,000. It wasn't till 1972 that the state of Arkansas bought the land and turned it into a state park. Since then the park has had over 2.6 million visitors and in that time 26,881 diamonds have been found, 778 of them were over a carat. The most notable finds were a 16.37 white diamond which was discovered in 1975 and the Strawn-Wagner diamond, a 3.03 carats when found. The later was cut into a 1.09 D-flawless 0/0/0 diamond. It is the most flawless diamond ever cut. There has also been many other finds over 5 carats. Besides diamond you can also find lamproite, amethyst, banded agate, jasper, peridot, garnet, quartz, calcite, barite and hermatite.
With all that said, we did not find a diamond but I did find a sunburn on my back. Sterling located a nice agate stone and we also found a few quartz and jasper stones. It was fun but now the kids have ruled out another career option. They don't want to be strawberry pickers or diamond miners.
We tried to get a campsite in Crater Park but they were full so we drove an hour and a half to Lake Ouachita State Park. This lake is huge and the campground is very nice. We had a good BBQ pork dinner and then the boys and I walked to the swimming area. We had a great time swimming. Dave decided to stay back to do the dishes and fix a broken chair. After swimming Dave and the boys roasted marshmallows by the fire then watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I was wiped and headed to bed.
Thought of the day: We talked to a guy on the diamond field that had a fenced in area to keep his mining materials. We asked him how many diamonds he had found. He said in a very proud tone that he had found a yellow carat and a quarter. We then asked him when he found it. He said 15 years ago. Wow, ever since then he pays $2 a day to rent a space and spend hundreds of hours a week trying to repeat what he did 15 years ago. It got me thinking about how many people do the same thing. We have a major moment in our past and we sometimes waste the rest of our lives trying to repeat it.
