Girl (7) makes rare discovery in American park: diamond of almost 3 carats | Abroad

It was a special birthday for the seven-year-old girl. Last week she found a large 2.95 carat brown diamond while visiting Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas.

The American girl was visiting the park with her father and grandmother when she found the precious pea-sized diamond. The park has a 15.2 hectare plowed diamond field that is open to the public. Diamonds have been discovered continuously since 1906.

“She felt hot and wanted to sit down, so she walked over to some big rocks near the fence,” said her father, Luther Brown. “Soon she ran to me and said, ‘Daddy! Daddy! I found one!’”

Finding a gemstone of that size in such a large diamond field is an “exceptionally rare” find, says Aaron Palke, a research scientist for the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). “Most of the ones you find are smaller than a grain of rice,” Palke said. A diamond found in the park is usually between 0.05 to 0.20 carats.

The park spokesperson spoke to the press and said that park visitors can keep the diamonds found. Waymon Cox, a park employee, called Aspen’s find “one of the most beautiful diamonds I’ve seen in years.”

Visitors who find diamonds in the state park often give them names. Aspen’s father said the diamond his daughter found will be named “Aspen Diamond.”

Already this year, 563 diamonds have been registered at Crater of Diamonds State Park, totaling more than 89 carats.

On average, one to two diamonds are found every day by park visitors, park officials said. The Aspen Brown diamond was found near where another large gemstone, a 3.72 carat diamond, was found in 2019.

More than 75,000 diamonds have been found in the state park since diamonds were first found by John Huddleston, the rancher who owned the land before it became a state park in 1972.