An Arkansas guy claims to have discovered something far more valuable after picking up what he initially believed to be a piece of glass at a state park: A 4.87-carat diamond was in it.
According to park officials, Jerry Evans went to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, for the first time with his girlfriend last spring.
According to a news release, Evans claims that ten minutes or so after they arrived, he saw what seemed to be glass a few feet distant on top of a plowed slope.
Evans stated in the statement that even though he pocketed the pyramid-shaped find, he wasn’t positive it was a diamond.
“It was quite evident. Really, I had no idea,” Evans remarked. “We were handling everything as though it were a diamond.”
According to park officials, Crater of Diamonds, which was designated as a state park in 1972, is a known source of diamonds from their original volcanic source.
Evans claims he sent the small object to the Gemological Institute of America for identification after thinking about whether it might be something other than glass after later returning home to Lepanto, Arkansas, which is roughly 250 miles away.
On its website, the nonprofit organization with headquarters in California states that it focuses on research and education related to gems and jewelry.
A few weeks later, Evans received word from the institute that he had discovered an almost colorless diamond, according to the release.
“I was ecstatic to learn it was real when they called,” he exclaimed.
After making the find, Evans got in touch with the park. According to park officials, his gem became the biggest one to be registered at the park since Labor Day 2020, when Kevin Kinard of Maumelle, Arkansas, discovered a 9.07-carat brown diamond there.
Assistant park superintendent at Crater of Diamonds State Park Waymon Cox stated in the release, “While I get many emails from people wanting me to identify something they’ve found here, to my recollection, this is the first time someone has contacted me after they’ve had a diamond identified by the GIA.”
According to the announcement, visitors to the park often find one to two gems there each day, and in 2023, 798 stones totaling more than 125 carats were registered there.
According to the park’s website, since the first diamonds were discovered in the early 1900s in the Pike County region where the park is located, more than 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed at Crater of Diamonds.
