Woman finds 3.72-carat yellow diamond at state park in Arkansas

MURFREESBORO, Ark. - A 27-year-old woman found a 3.72-carat yellow diamond while searching for the gems at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas.

Miranda Hollingshead, of Bogata, Texas, visited the park for the first time with her family on Aug. 16, according to a park press release. She was in the area picking something up and decided to “do something fun” while her siblings were in town.

Hollingshead said she’d known about the diamond-centric park for years and decided to go gem hunting during her first visit.

“I was sitting in the shade, watching a YouTube video on how to find diamonds. I looked over at my kid for a second, and when I looked down, I saw it mixed in with other rocks,” she said.

She ended up finding the nearly 4-carat diamond after only an hour of searching at the base of a hill on the northeast side of the park. Hollingshead then shared her find with her family and went to register it with the park’s Diamond Discovery Center.

The park states that most people who find a diamond end up naming it. When Hollingshead was asked what she’d name her precious gem, she said Caro Avenger. Her young son gave her the name Caro and she said she likes superheroes.

She told park staff she was unsure if she’d sell her diamond or keep it, but if she does decide to hang onto it, she’d have it mounted on a ring.

Hollingshead’s diamond is the largest yellow diamond found since October 2013, when someone from Oklahoma City found a 3.85-carat stone, according to the park. Her diamond is also the largest registered overall gem at the Crater of Diamonds since March 2017.

“Every diamond found at the park is beautiful in its own way, and this one is certainly no exception. It’s about the size of a pencil eraser, with a light yellow color and a sparking, metallic luster,” park interpreter Waymon Cox said.

About one in every 10 diamonds are found on the ground by visitors searching the area, according to the park. Periodically, park personnel plow the diamond search area to loosen soil and help with natural erosion since the spot is the eroded surface of an ancient diamond-bearing volcanic pipe.

This year alone, 319 diamonds have been registered with the park, totaling 63.48 carats. Thirteen of those diamonds weighed at least 1 carat each, according to the park.

The most common diamonds found in the 37.5-acre diamond search area of the park are white, brown and yellow.

More than 75,000 diamonds have been found in the area since 1906, when a farmer named John Huddleston owned the land before it became a state park in 1972.

Crater of Diamonds State Park is located in Murfreesboro, Arkansas.

This story was reported from Los Angeles.