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Jack Pearadin discovered a 6.03-carat yellow diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. He claims collectors say it could be worth $1 million, while one appraiser estimates about $250,000.
A Navy reservist has found a 6.03-carat diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, a discovery he has named the American Dream. Jack Pearadin says collectors have told him the stone could be worth $1 million.
Jack Pearadin Discovers Large Diamond
The find was made earlier this year with a friend, Michael Schumacher of Wisconsin, who helped dig the gravel that produced the stone. Pearadin livestreamed the moment on TikTok as he rinsed gravel from a bucket and flipped the pile onto a table. Oh my God! Oh my God!
Pearadin said during the livestream. Holy crap, we got a big one! he yelled as the shiny facets of the 6.03-carat diamond were exposed. Roughly the size of a fingernail, the stone is the largest diamond found this year at the park. Park interpreter Sarah Bivens said most of the 400 to 800 diamonds found there annually weigh about a quarter of a carat.
At least one experienced appraiser told The Associated Press that a diamond of such size and quality could be worth a fourth of the $1 million figure, still an impressive find. Certified gem appraiser Laura Stanley in Little Rock said a typical .17-carat diamond from the park can sell for around $700. Stanley said a high-quality six-carat yellow diamond from the park can sell for about $250,000, partly because of its origin. They are their own entity, Stanley said.
Crater of Diamonds Unique Mining Experience
It is the only place in America where you can go find your own diamond and you cannot compare that to a diamond from anywhere else. More than 37,000 diamonds have been discovered since the former open-pit diamond mine became part of a state park in 1972. The park charges a US$15 entry fee to fill a 5-gallon bucket with rocks, and people can keep any gemstones they find. Most are small and worth maybe a few hundred dollars.
The largest diamond found at the park, known as Uncle Sam, weighed 40 carats. The largest diamond ever unearthed in the United States, a 40.23-carat stone called the Uncle Sam, was found at the park in 1924. The Uncle Sam crystal was cut and polished into a 12.42-carat diamond gifted to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, where it is on view in the Great American Diamonds exhibit.
Pearadin, originally from Missouri, has been trying his luck at the park since 2013, even moving to nearby Murfreesboro to support his hobby. I love it that much, he told The Associated Press. He has sold most of his diamonds online. Park assistant superintendent Waymon Cox noted some bigger finds in recent years: In 2020 a 9-carat diamond was found by an Arkansas bank manager, and in 2024 a French man unearthed a 7-carat diamond.
Diamond Formation and Rare US Deposits
Diamonds are found in few places in the United States. They are crystallized under tremendous pressure and heat deep inside the Earth and then thrust to the surface through volcanic activity before being scattered by water or wind. These natural diamonds are often cloudy and oddly shaped, and lose about 25 per cent of their weight as they are cut and polished into what a jeweller would sell, according to Nathan Renfro, senior manager at the Gemological Institute of America.
Renfro said the U.S. has only two known primary deposits of diamonds, places where columns of once-molten volcanic rock have reached the surface: Crater of Diamonds and Colorado's Kelsey Lake, where the land was reclaimed after a commercial mining operation went out of business years ago. Today, that leaves the Arkansas park as one of the only places in the world where anyone can hunt for diamonds and take their finds with them.
It is a pretty remarkable operation that that is available to the public, Renfro said. Most diamond mines are super high security. Pearadin plans to split the profits with Schumacher and open his own crystal mine. It is just this massive, gorgeous yellow diamond, Pearadin said.
Laura Turbay is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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CP24:This story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
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