8.5-carat diamond found: Where else can amateurs score precious gems?

Arkansas's Diamonds State Park is the only known diamond mine in the United States, but emeralds, sapphires, and rubies have been uncovered at other gem-hunting destinations.

|
Crater of Diamonds State Park/AP
Bobbie Oskarson holds the 8.52-carat diamond she found at Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds State Park at Murfreesboro on June 24. Park officials said Friday that the gem found by Ms. Oskarson of Longmont, Colo., is the fifth largest diamond found since the park was established in 1972. The park does not provide an estimate of the diamond's potential value.

An out-of-state tourist has found an 8.52-carat diamond at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas.

Bobbie Oskarson of Longmont, Colo., found the gem Wednesday in the southwest corner of the Pig Pen, the park’s 37.5-acre search field named for its muddy terrain, CNN reported. The diamond – about three-quarters of an inch in length and as big around as a No. 2 pencil – is the fifth largest found since the park was established in 1972, park interpreter Waymon Cox told the Associated Press.

The park’s biggest gem, the Amarillo Starlight Diamond, is 16.37 carats and was discovered 1975.

Ms. Oskarson named her find the Esperanza Diamond, after her niece, and plans to keep the gem, according to CNN. The park, which boasts that it is the only site in the world where the public can search for diamonds, adheres to a “finders-keepers” policy.

It isn’t, however, the only place in the United States where enterprising amateurs can hunt for precious stones.

Hiddenite, N.C., is host to the 70-acre Emerald Hollow Mine, the only emerald site in the US open to the public for prospecting. Open year-round, the mine gives visitors a taste of the lush scenery of North Carolina’s Brushy Mountains and the chance to hunt for emeralds as well as garnets, topaz, sapphires, and other gems.

While in the Tar Heel State, treasure hunters should also swing by the Cherokee Ruby Mine in Franklin, and Gem Mountain in Spruce Pine. The first is home to collector-grade rubies as well as sapphires, while the latter is a hunting ground for aquamarines.

The Morefield Gem Mine, just an hour away from Richmond, Va., is the place for enthusiasts with an interest in amazonite, a bright turquoise stone. The mine, which has its own exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., produces 80 different minerals and is open to miners of all skill levels, including beginners, according to the International Gem Society.

Heading to the West Coast? Hunt for opals at the Rainbow Ridge Opal Mine in Virgin Valley, Nev. or quality amethysts in Four Peaks, Ariz.

Montana has its own Gem Mountain as well, found about 20 miles outside the town of Philipsburg. The site is known for its sapphires and stones, which visitors can dig for with the help of local staff: “We dig up the dirt for you, wash it, concentrate it, and bring it to the store by the dump truck load,” Gem Mountain’s website reads.   

Those who can’t make the journey can find and order the gems online.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 8.5-carat diamond found: Where else can amateurs score precious gems?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/0629/8.5-carat-diamond-found-Where-else-can-amateurs-score-precious-gems
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe