Arkansas Man Nearly Tosses Out 4.38 Carat Diamond

By Pamela Mortimer

Chad Johnson is a diamond miner. Johnson, 36, moved from Iowa to Murfreesboro, Arkansas in February and has since made good use of his time mining for diamonds. To date, Johnson has found approximately 80 diamonds, which he sells in order to make a living.

On Monday, Johnson made his biggest discovery yet – a 4.38 carat tea-colored diamond. The cube shaped rock was mixed in with the dirt located in Johnson’s sifters and the color of the diamond almost convinced Johnson that there was nothing there. The diamond turned out to be the second largest stone found this year. In June, a Louisiana man found a 4.8-carat diamond.

It was on Saturday that Johnson made the dig. Afterward, he left his equipment in an on-site locker. When Johnson returned Monday morning, he made the discovery. The dig was a routine one for Johnson who had managed to get by on selling the gems he’d found in the park. He only recently took a job at a local convenience store because he says he "got tired of selling diamonds to make ends meet."

Crater of Diamonds State Park is the world's only diamond-producing site open to the general public. The Park opened in 1972, made a big splash because visitors can keep the gems they unearth. The largest diamond found at the park was a 16.37-carat Amarillo Starlight, a white diamond unearthed by a Texas visitor in 1975. More than 700 diamonds have been found at Crater of Diamonds State Park this year.

Visitors are also attracted to the former farm turned state park to mine for more than forty other types of rocks and minerals. These rocks and minerals include lamproite, quartz, amethyst, garnet, banded agate, jasper, calcite, peridot, barite, and hematite.

"Every time someone finds a big diamond here at the park, they just get slammed with tourists," said Johnson, a park regular. "This has already been a bad summer for tourists and they were looking forward to winding down and then this happened."

Park officials have declined to speculate on the potential selling price Johnson could raise if he sold the diamond. Johnson surmised that he might net much more than what he is used to getting for his troubles.

"If someone offers me that much money, it's theirs," Johnson said.