9-Carat Diamond Found at Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park

How would you like to find a diamond?  I'm not talking about taking a stroll through the Louisiana Boardwalk and possibly stumbling across a piece of jewelry someone dropped, I mean getting down in the dirt and discovering an honest-to-goodness, uncut, raw diamond worth hundreds to possibly thousands of dollars.  That's exactly the draw of the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas.

At this amazing tourist attraction, visitors can comb the 37 and a half acre diamond search area for geological treasures.  The best part?  If you find a diamond, you get to keep it!  That's the news that still has 33-year-old Kevin Kinard giddy!

See, back on September 7th, Kevin and his friends were walking the freshly plowed and rained on field when something shiny caught his eye.  He picked up the marble-sized  rock and threw it in his bag with various crystals and cool looking rocks he had found during his search.  A few hours later, the group headed back to parks headquarters to have their stones examined by the experts.  A short time later, a park staff member escorted him to a back office where he was informed that his "shiny rock" was a massive  9.07-carat diamond!

According to KATV, 246 diamonds have been found at the park this year alone - totaling a whopping 59.25 carats!  Kevin's find is very special, however.  It has the distinction of being the 2nd largest diamond ever found there.  The biggest was an incredible 16.37-carat white diamond named the "Amarillo Starlight," that was found at the park in 1975.