At Arkansas’s Crater of Diamonds State Park, a Father and Son From Arizona Find a 2 CT Diamond
Will and Marshall Barnett, a father and son from Buckeye, Arizona, came to Arkansas in late July for a “boys’ week” road trip and got more than they expected.
After talking to his uncle, who worked as a park ranger at the Crater of Diamonds State Park, Will decided to go there and take a chance to find a real diamond.
The search for diamonds began in the early hours of July 27. The two rented screens at the park’s Diamond Discovery Center and then went into the 37.5-acre diamond search area. This is a cleared field on top of the worn-down surface of an extinct volcano that contains diamonds. They filled some buckets with diamond-bearing dirt and then went to the park’s south wash shelter to sift their dirt while it was still wet. Park Interpreter Ashlyn Keys talked about the sorting process.
Keys stated that wet sorting is one of the best ways to look for diamonds. “There are two wash pavilions with water troughs and tables in the search area so that people can wet sift.” You can go through more material in less time and have a better chance of finding a diamond if you use screens to sort the dirt from the gravel.
The father, Will, quickly called his son over while he was moving things around.
Will told Marshall, “Hey, you should look at this.”
Marshall was thrilled as he picked out the big rock and then asked a nearby experienced miner if they had just found a diamond. In the afternoon, the Barnetts took their find to the Diamond Discovery Center in the park. The workers there confirmed that it was, in fact, a big diamond.
Keys said, “The smiles on their faces showed that they knew they had found something special.”
Caleb Howell, who is in charge of the park, noticed how excited everyone was.
Whatell said, “As I looked at the diamond, I looked out the office window and asked Mrs. Keys who the finders were. I then said, ‘Wait, let me guess: they’re the ones shaking with excitement.'” “When the light hit them just right, the first thing I saw were two big facets that really shone.”
People who go to Crater of Diamonds State Park can pick the name of the diamond they find. The Barnett family likes to pan for gold, which is how the name “Minor Find” came about. Will calls his son a “minor miner.”
The “Minor Find” is the 36,500th diamond to be booked at the Crater of Diamonds since it became an Arkansas State Park in 1972. It is the 412th diamond to be booked at the park this year.