The park offers visitors a one-of-a-kind experience, the adventure of hunting for real diamonds. You search over a 37 acre plowed field that is the eroded surface of an ancient, diamond-bearing volcanic pipe – the world's eighth largest in surface area.
This world famous site is the only diamond-producing area in North America open to the public. And, if you find a diamond it's yours to keep!
Over 75,000 diamonds have been found at “the Crater”. On average, more than 700 diamonds are found each year, including such notable finds as: The Uncle Sam - 40.23 carats, The Amarillo Starlight – 15.33 carats and The Star of Shreveport – 8.82 carats
In 1998, the Strawn-Wagner Diamond, a cut white Crater diamond weighing 1.09 carats, was graded by the American Gem Society as a “D” Flawless 0/0/0 perfect diamond. A “one-in-a-billion diamond.”
We spent about 3 hours searching for our riches.
Paul renting a screen for our adventure.
Paul looking for the "diamond in the rough."
Marsha looking for her diamond.
Some people take this really seriously. Look at the ladies position in this picture.
These people are having a picnic while they dig.
We had our choice of dry shifting…which we choose…or wet shifting. Too messy for us.
They even had a water park that was really nice. It didn't open till noon.
Marsha seemed to take it a little more serious than Paul (I guess she takes most things more serious). Look at her finds!
Here's Paul precious stone…NOT.
He's convinced there are thousands of small diamonds in the dirt he sifted at the mine. He only brought home a small sample of his sifted diamonds. "See my diamond!"
After our diamond search, we spent some time hiking one of the trails and collecting more pine needles for Marsha's baskets. This trail was a concrete paved trail for the first half mile. It was like a stroll in the park, but we were the only people taking advantage of this hike through the forest.
At the Little Missouri River, we turned on a lesser developed trail to return to the parking lot. It was so quiet and peaceful. We were successful in collecting quite a few pine needles.
We ended the first part of the day with a treat of ice cream in a small store in town. YUMMMMM!
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!
I've read about the diamond fields and always thought that would be fun to do. Now I'll know to ask you about it again if we ever make it. I'm sorry you didn't find the big one but I'm glad you left it for us!
ReplyDeleteNow to make jewelry out of all your finds. What a fun, different experience. The woman laying down did not look comfortable on all those rocks.
ReplyDeleteThanks for showing us what we missed when we skipped diamond hunting. LOL We look forward to going when it's not so stinkin' hot, though we must admit, you two looked 'cool' as gold miners.
ReplyDeleteOh, how cool is that! My millions are clearly waiting for me in AR....who would've thought :)
ReplyDeleteNina
We went there a couple of years ago. We camped in the park. It was HOT the days we were there. We had a good time looking. I have no idea whats going on, but I can't leave a message through google.
ReplyDeleteDuane