By: 
Waymon Cox
 Updated: 
Family searches for diamonds with small shovels at Crater of Diamonds State Park

Greetings from Crater of Diamonds State Park! So far, 2019 has been a productive year for finding diamonds in Arkansas. By the end of April, our park staff had registered 177 diamonds, compared to 139 diamonds during the same four months last year. Visitors from Arkansas found 36 diamonds, while travelers from 25 other states and three foreign countries registered 141 diamonds.

By far, most (127) of this year’s diamonds have been registered as white, while 30 have been classified as yellow and 20 as brown. The average weight of diamonds registered so far in 2019 is around 15 points, or about 1/6 of a carat. Four diamonds have weighed over one carat each, the largest a 1.63-carat yellow gem registered by a visitor from Louisiana on April 6.

This year has also been one of the wettest in recent memory, with nearly 33” of rain falling on the park from January through April. The rain has washed a lot of dirt through the search area, and as a result 11 visitors have found diamonds on top of the ground, including two weighing over one carat. If increased rain amounts continue through the rest of spring, we will likely see many more diamonds found on top of the ground as visitation increases this summer.

If you are planning to visit the Crater of Diamonds over the next few months, check out CraterofDiamondsStatePark.com to keep up with the park’s latest diamond finds, see what uncut diamonds look like, and learn about the best ways to search for diamonds. We look forward to seeing you here!

Search area last plowed: March 19, 2019

Most recent significant rain: May 12, 2019

Diamond finds for the weeks of April 21 & 28, 2019 (100 points = 1 carat):

April 21 – Rebecca Norris & Troy McDuffie, Reserve, LA, 1 pt. white; Ben Reynolds, Minot, ND, 24 pt. white

April 22 – Lynn Borcherding, Belmont, WI, 39 pt. white

April 23 – Thomas Stussi, Tuefen, Switzerland, 47 pt. white

April 25 – Melissa & Chad Beauchamp, Milan, MI, 25 pt. white; Bob Kemper, Huntsville, AL, 8 pt. brown, 33 pt. white

April 26 – Jason Ivins, Saint Jo, TX, 2 pt. white

April 29 – Ben Reynolds, Minot, ND, 21 pt. yellow; Lavada Teinert, Santa Fe, TX, 36 pt. white

May 4 – Troy Savage, Antlers, OK, 12 pt. white; Jack Fagan, Houston, TX, 3 pt. yellow