It's All Chance

The temperature in Hot Springs this morning read 25 degrees, and Little Red was coated with frost from the humidity in Valley of the Vapors. Andy poured an ice bucket of cool water from the motel across the windshield to speed the melting before we hit the road. The Weather Channel predicted mid-50's by afternoon.
West of Hot Springs we counted seven chicken farms in a row. "That's a leading industry in Arkansas," said Andy. "It may be THE leading industry." The fields stretched clean and white, as sun glinted on frost coating. Placid ponds reflected trees that bounded them; they shimmered from the ice just forming. A billboard read, Liquor Store: Dry Counties Ahead. Maybe so.
As we headed southwest and the sun rose higher, the fields lost their white sheen. Southwest. To Crater of Diamonds.
A lumber truck loaded with pine logs barreled past us on Route #27. "We haven't seen those since northern California," I said to Andy.
"That's a second huge industry in Arkansas," he answered, "and if I remember correctly there are fewer people by like a million in the whole state of Arkansas than there are in Connecticut. Arkansas is pine forests."
Nestled among tall yellow pine trees in rolling fields of the Arkansas countryside, Crater of Diamonds State Park plowed a 37-acre field for visitors to dig for diamonds. The eighth largest diamond mine in the world, Crater has yielded more than 75,000 diamonds since the first find in 1906 by then owner John Huddleston. More than 28,000 stones have been discovered by visitors since the state bought the property as a park in 1972. We didn't find any, and we dug and sifted for five hours.

"The park is the diamond mine in more ways than one," joked Andy. We paid our $7.00 per person admission fee and then discussed with a burly male clerk at the mine office what equipment to rent. "Are y'all dry pannin' or sluicin'?" the clerk asked.

"This is new for us," I told him. "What do you recommend? We have watched the video and read the displays."

"It's cold for being in the water, but the furrows look too wet for sifting," said Andy.

We rented the Basic Kit for $43.87, $35.00 of which was deposit.

"Return the equipment in good condition, and y'all can have the deposit back," said the clerk. With bucket, shovel and two wooden sifting trays, we headed out to dig. Five or six other people rambled up and down the rows, heads down, eyes following the furrows, in mud that stuck to everything.

Using a stick, Andy loosened the top layer so the sun could glint off of any drying diamond. I picked a row and worked slowly in one direction, loosening clumps with a shovel, dropping small stones into the bucket and eliminating the large rocks and the mud. "Dirt doesn't stick to the diamonds; they are rounded crystals about the size of a kitchen match head," I said to myself, remembering the instructions in the video.

"It's like winning the lottery," said Andy. "It doesn't take much skill. It's just a whole lot of luck." We learned that diamonds show up anywhere in the soil, with the largest ones usually near the surface, but the average value per carat is only about $12.41. Most found here are yellow, brown or clear white in color.

We took a ten-minute break at noon for trail bars and soda. The 50-plus degree sun felt wonderful, but the breeze chilled the air.

"Let's try sluicing," I suggested, forgetting that wet panning meant getting to the water tables in the center of the acreage. With sneakers coated to the laces in mud, we sloshed the wooden screens of dirt in ice water. "That's got to be freezing," said Andy.

"Yup," I told him. "You had better make this worth my while. I'll slosh if you'll sort."

"Thanks," he answered and dumped the first tray on the screening table. He picked a spot in the sun.

After half a bucket, we went back to the dry screening. "That's it," said Andy. "If you haven't found one by 3:00 o'clock, we are calling it quits."

Inside the gift shop, Bonnie asked how we did.

"Well, we didn't find any diamonds if that's what you mean," I told her, "but it was interesting."

"You were out there a long time," she noticed, "but it's all chance."
"Five hours," said Andy.

Bonnie explained that the busiest time of year at the park is March, April and May when 1,500-2,000 people a day come to dig for gems at the only productive deposit of precious mineral diamonds in the U.S. The overall yearly average of finds is two a day.

"Many days people don't find any," Bonnie said, "and then all of a sudden one day we will have 12 finds. It's been a whole week now since anyone found anything. You just never know."

Disappointed? Yes, I guess so, but also remembering the experience with realistic understanding. Finding would have been a thrill, but the fun was in the dig, and now I can say that on a beautiful day in January, I actually went diamond hunting.