A good weekend for (very small) independent miners: Jessica and Seth Erickson, a couple from Chatfield, Minnesota, decided to spend some time at Arkansas’s Crater of Diamonds State Park as part of their 10th anniversary, and hit the jackpot. According to a press release, the couple found a brown diamond weighing nearly two carats.
The Ericksons arrived at Crater of Diamonds early on a Friday morning. After spending the morning digging dirt, they were wet sifting by 11 am. After an hour of this, Seth spotted a metallic-looking gem in the bottom of his screen. The couple excitedly carried their gem in a clear vial to the park’s Diamond Discovery Center, where park staff registered it as a 1.90-carat brown diamond about the size of a pony bead.
581 diamonds have been registered at Crater of Diamonds State Park in 2022. An average of one to two diamonds are found by park visitors each day.
