On Saturday, 14-year-old Tana Clymer discovered a 3.85-carat teardrop-shaped yellow diamond while on a family trip to the Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds State Park. According to Tana, something shiny caught her eye in the ground's surface after she had been digging around for approximately two hours. Tana said that she thought it was a shiny piece of paper or a marble at first, but discovered - to her great surprise - that it was a diamond upon closer examination. "I think God pointed me to it, and told me to slow down and look at it more closely," Tana said - thus she named it "God's Jewel." Tana plans on either keeping the diamond for a ring, or selling it for college funds if it turns out to be worth enough money.
According to Bill Henderson (the assistant park superintendent), the diamond is very similar to the 4.21-carat "Okie Dokie Diamond" come upon in 2006 by Oklahoma State Trooper Marvin Culver. Henderson also reported that many other diamonds have been discovered this year (God's Jewel is the 396th diamond found so far!), probably due to rainfall that moves away the top layers of soil.
Ever since the discovery of the site in 1906 by the owner of the land John Huddleson, over 75,000 diamonds altogether have been unearthed in the State Park - and that's not including the other precious stones that are frequently found such as amethyst, garnet, peridot, jasper, agate, calcite, barite, and quartz. Also, the largest diamond ever dug up in the USA - discovered in 1924, weighing 40.23 carats - was also uncovered in the Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds State Park.
I think it's fascinating that so many diamonds and jewels have all been found in one little area of the USA that was originally a little, obscure farm. I think it's great that anyone can search for jewels in the park, and I'm also curious to know why and how they got there in the first place. Who knows? Maybe I will go there someday and find some gems myself!
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/21/oklahoma-teen-finds-385-carat-diamond-at-arkansas-state-park/
Byron Otis- What an uplifting story! It's wonderful to know that there are some areas people are able to be lucky. It seems in today's society that so much of the world is unlucky, this just proves that wrong.
ReplyDeleteThis was a cool story to read! Thank you for sharing it with us! It was nice to read a current event that wasn't about politics or death. I actually take a trip to Arkansas during the summer every year so next summer I'll have to keep this in mind, and who knows, maybe I'll find a diamond too! Haha
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I've been there. It is rather rare to find a diamond, so this girl got very lucky. I'm pretty jealous.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the odds of finding a diamond, let alone a 14 year old girl finding a diamond! Most kids don't have enough patience to look for so long. From what I read, it sounds like this girl is very deserving and I'm sure she will take good care of it if she chooses to keep it and if she chooses to sell it I am sure the money will go to good use.
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