Diamonds!

Today we went to Crater of the Diamonds State Park, the only diamond-producing site in the world where the public is invited to search for diamonds and keep what they find! For a small fee of $6.50 each, you can get down and dirty, digging for treasure in a 37 acre plowed field that is the eroded surface of an ancient volcanic pipe. Over 75,000 diamonds have been found, including one that was 40 carats. By the time we left this afternoon, five had been found today.


There are two main methods for finding the gems - the dry method, demonstrated here by Ron. (We rented the screening box for a couple bucks.)



And here is the wet method which looked way too cold to us. The park provides processing pavilions and the tubs of water.






On the left is Ron's find - a lovely piece of quartz. Then a nice lady showed me her prize, although even she thought it was probably glass.


















Personally, I just went for size. I believe it's all in the polishing.



I think searching for diamonds is like playing a slot machine in a casino. Do you stay with one spot figuring it has to pay off eventually, or change to a different spot and hope for better luck.


On our way off the field, we passed these two. You can see which theory they believe.



Here is our charming Lake Gresson in all its flooded glory.