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Dig diamonds? Go south.
Amateur diamond prospecting picks up steam in Arkansas.
By Clayton Collins | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the May 4, 2007 edition
Page 1 of 3
Maybe once in a lifetime
You'll hold one in your hand
Once in a lifetime
In this land
– "I Dug Up a Diamond," Mark Knopfler/ Emmylou Harris
MURFREESBORO, ARK. – Maybe more than once, if you spend enough time here in this southern Arkansas town of rusty metal roofs, where the Pike County courthouse dominates the traffic circle and fiddle music pours from a speaker outside Hawkins variety store.
Two miles south of town, on a plowed 37-acre field where a volcano oozed 100 million years ago, David Anderson wipes his muddy hands, digs into his pocket, and produces a small glass vial. Inside, a rough diamond – 1.57 carats – glints.
"They told me it should never be cut," says Mr. Anderson, a roofer from Grand Rapids, Mich. Doing so would reduce the rock's size, of course. Besides, it's a natural beauty, somewhat rounded by a few billion years in the earth but with hints of facets on its face.
Old-timers he has met put its as-is value at about $5,000. Anderson is thinking about extending his stay.
Put off by the "blood diamond" aura that still taints much of the harvest and wholesale of these shimmering stones, even though the UN has lifted some Africa sanctions of late? Then head south for a mud diamond. One of the poorest states in America, Arkansas is also home to the world's eighth-largest diamond repository. It's not guarded by some strong-arm private concern; commercial mining never took hold here. This is Crater of Diamonds State Park: No refunds, no handguns, and no washing your muddy shoes in the restroom sinks.
For $6.50 a day you can keep what you find. And some 600 seekers – including young children and other rank beginners, some armed with kitchen sieves and tweezers – toted off brown, yellow, or white diamond varieties last year alone.
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