During a visit to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, a man named Jerry Evans and his girlfriend discovered a remarkable 4.87-carat diamond—the largest colorless diamond found in the park in this decade.
At the park, open to both locals and visitors, individuals can search for diamonds in the hills and ditches. In the spring of 2023, Jerry Evans from Lepanto, within just ten minutes of entering the park, spotted what appeared to be a piece of glass on a plowed ridge. Thinking it might be a diamond, he picked it up and stored it in his pocket.
Unsure about the discovery, Evans later sent the stone to the Gemological Institute of America for identification. To his delight, the institute confirmed that it was a near-colorless diamond.
“I thought it might be a piece of glass, it was so clear. I really didn’t know,” Evans shared. “We were picking up everything thinking it was a diamond.”
Assistant Park Superintendent Waymon Cox noted that while he receives numerous emails for diamond identification, this is the first time someone contacted him after having a diamond identified by the GIA. The park official expressed his satisfaction that Evans brought the historic diamond back to the park for official registration.
Crater of Diamonds State Park has seen over 75,000 diamonds discovered, and Evans’s find is the largest colorless stone in quite some time. The last larger diamond was found on Labor Day of 2020, a brown diamond twice its size. In the current year, the park registered a total of 125 carats worth of diamonds, showcasing the ongoing allure of this unique location, shaped by a past volcanic event that created the ideal conditions for diamond formation.
