Crater of Diamonds State Park
The Crater of Diamonds State Park is a state park near Murfreesboro in Pike County in the U.S. state of Arkansas, United States. In the park is the eighth largest diamond mine in the world. It is open to the public and visitors are allowed to keep all the found stones. The IUCN has classified the area as a natural monument.
Park
The Crater of Diamonds State Park is a 3.69 km ² large area, which is located on a 95 million year old eroded lamproite volcanic vent. The park is open to the public and a small fee may mineral collectors, treasure hunters and regular visitors to diamonds and other precious and semi-precious stones, excavated. The park visitors find in the average year over 600 diamonds, which are almost two per day. The stones found may be retained irrespective of variety, weight and value. In addition to the eponymous diamonds already amethysts, jasper, agate and quartz and other minerals have been found 40 other varieties.
The crater itself is a 14.2 -acre area that is plowed regularly to bring the gems from deeper layers directly to the surface. The facilities of the park consist of a visitor center where there is information about the park and the geological background and a Discovery Center, where the necessary equipment can be rented for geological survey, is informed of diamonds and other precious stones and assessed stones found and certified can be. For walkers there are the Little Missouri River is a 2 -mile loop trail.
History
John Huddleston found the first diamonds in 1906. Several attempts at commercial yield of the mine failed.
Shortly after the first diamond was found, put a " diamond rush " and gave Murfreesboro a flight of fancy. The hotels were forced to reject 10,000 nights in a year. These homeless built near the mine on a tent city, which they named in hopeful expectation Kimberley, such as the famous Kimberley diamond mine in South Africa. 1924 Uncle Sam diamond was found.
From 1952 to 1972, the crater was a private guided tourist attraction. Between 1964 and 1968 Roscoe Johnston leased 49 acres ( 19.6 hectares) of land with diamond-bearing soils near the crater and marketed it under the name " Arkansas Diamond Mine". during this time the "Star of Murfreesboro " and were " Phillips 66 " found.
1972 was acquired by the State of Arkansas the crater to make it into a state park and since then have been over 25,000 diamonds found there
In the wake of the increased diamond finds and the fact that Arkansas was the first state, could be found in the diamond in such a natural way, the diamond has become increasingly associated with the state. The diamond shape of the polished diamonds in 1912, participate in the design of the flag of Arkansas with.