Crater of Diamonds State Park

[Red_desert]

Arkansas is beautiful in the fall. Decided to get away for a while from TV news, noise pollution. Tent camping for 1 person...me alone!

At the mine field, by the time you get across it, you're ready for a break!

 

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[Red_desert]

Oh, it is so much work to walk over those furrows.

More scenes from the park mine field...

 

[hammered]

Looks like a nice place, do you get bears? and what are you looking for in the plowed field? . Nice pics by the way, thanks for showing your bit of the USA


hammered

 

[Goose-0]

Nice colorful pictures.....thanks.

 

[fossis]

Great place to get away, I hope to get down there soon.

Any luck?

Fossis...............

 

[diggemall]

Looks like a nice place, do you get bears? and what are you looking for in the plowed field? . Nice pics by the way, thanks for showing your bit of the USA


hammered

check it out hammered: http://www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com/

Diggem'

 

[Red_desert]

It is on the edge of a lamproite diamond pipe. They used to think only 3 pipes existed in the area and 1 without the diamonds. Diamonds will dissolve in the host rock if the mantle rock/ magma lamproite come to the surface slower than 60 mph. The park mine field was believed to have only one of them. A new geological survey, it was discovered the hill area in the woods is really 3 diamond pipes. The older lady park geologists brought out a new geological map to show me what I'd found.

Only 1 place in the mine field has the diamond pipe. It comes off the SE edge of the south pipe or hill, like a long reef or vein going SE into the field. Reminded me of how Florida comes off USA coastline. I'm busy taking photos yet of the 78 lbs. of diamond ore and 22 nice sized agates. It was like picking up seashells at the beach. You pull 1 piece of ore loose, it exposes 2-3 more, 20 minutes to fill up a large gold pan. I drove a car, packed too full of gear, limited space for rocks.

Here is a link to another thread in MUG Shots with more photos, including some lamproite diamond ore. The ore photos were taken at the park, so a little washed out because of the sunlight. Have some better pics taken here at home, will be clearer to see (will have them ready soon).
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,434018.0.html

Sliced lamproite specimens at the moment, on the big mineral sites, have been selling for $30-$36 a polished slice which can fit into a 2x2" plastic holder. These websites specialize in various kimberlite/lamproite specimens from South Africa, NW Territory, other locations around the world. I brought back a 13x16" 10" tall box of the weathered lamproite, the rest is hard enough for slicing.

 

[Red_desert]

These are geological panels from the park diamond museum. Didn't see the new geological map in there, couldn't even find it on the Internet. The Geological Survey site has some neat zoom-in maps for the crater....but still nothing new.

 

[stefen]

Great experience...anything you find will make the experience that much better

 

[Red_desert]

Diamond display at the museum. The Uncle Sam diamond, thought it must be a replica but don't know for sure yet.

 

[Red_desert]

Great experience...anything you find will make the experience that much better

Yes, having a good time and meeting nice people is all part of it....especially checking all the rocks. I love turning stones over. There were some nice jasper which during the volcanic eruption became fractured. Then a lighter color of rock filled in which may have quartz crystals sometimes too. A couple of them, it took a park geologist to distinguish from the agates.

I heard a lot of people complaining about their luck, it was like they were trying to strike it rich as in plating the lotto. They miss out on what it's all about, the fun in the sun, other mineral prospectors or treasure hunters. I had my GPAA hat on, was surprised how many GPAA members visit the crater.

 

[RGINN]

Excellent place! Been there twice, didn't find nothin, but no complaints. They used to have a travelling exhibit that would take take dirt from the park around to various places and set up and let people dig. That's where I first heard about the place, when they had a set up at the State Fair of Oklahoma back in the 60's. Didn't find nothin then either, still fun.

 

[Monty]

I went up there with a bunch of policemen I worked with back in the 1970s. "Doc" Roberts, one of the cleverest guys I ever worked with took a cut glass doorknob out in the field and buried it where one of the guys was sure to find it. Sure enough in an hour or so here came one of the guys hooping and hollering that he had found a huge diamond. (A diamond in the rough looks nothing like one that has been cut and polished, and certainly nothing like a fists sized glass doorknob). Doc and I were rolling on the ground when several people came running over to see the huge diamond! That guy wouldn't speak to Doc the rest of the trip. But it was so funny. Monty

 

[Red_desert]

They average at the crater about 2 diamond finds a day. Many of those finds are small. I came by right after this one guy found a yellow diamond. He said it was his 2nd diamond find that day. The digger, a 3 prong type garden tool. No sifting, screening or washing of the material. Just sit on the edge of a furrow, the sunny side, scratch the surface while watching for diamonds to flash in the sun. You can cover a 12 ft long section of one side of a furrow in no time. That will be included as a recovery tool next trip, if I take another.

I'd been tracking the finds for a couple months before the trip. Kept the find results from the park website. After a good rain, a diamond 1 carat or slightly over is often found there.

 

[Red_desert]

Diamonds were first discovered at this location in 1906 when John Huddlestone found two strange crystals in the soil of his farm.
http://geology.com/articles/crater-of-diamonds/

The big diamond rushes in Africa occurred in the late 1800's and information about the deposits there was widely published. Prior to Huddlestone's discovery, geologists at the Arkansas State Geological Survey suspected that diamonds might occur in the greenish peridotite soils near Murfreesboro because they were similar to the soils above the African diamond deposits. They did fieldwork in the area but did not find any diamonds.

 

[Red_desert]

Looks like a nice place, do you get bears? and what are you looking for in the plowed field? . Nice pics by the way, thanks for showing your bit of the USA


hammered

I think there could be some bears, but not around the park. I asked a few people, nobody seemed to know for sure, if bears ever come in to the crator area.

 

[Red_desert]

Great place to get away, I hope to get down there soon.

Any luck?

Fossis...............

Fossis, if you get down there, near the amethyst bed are tailing piles people miss the agates when discarding the screened rocks. It was only the end of the day, last 2 days in the field I'd discovered this. I looked at flat sandstone pieces until 2 showed signs of quartz on the edge. Took them in for mineral identification.....Murfreesboro agates!!!! Went back the next morning and got a total of 22 agates from just the one tailing pile.

Any flat rocks that ever show a trace of white on the edge, take them back to be rinsed off. Sometimes sandstone will have a scrape on 1 edge making it appear to show white, but it all rinses off with water. I put my rocks in a black gold pan covered with water. On a sunny day you can really see signs of quartz in the edges.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Very cool thread. Thanks!

All the best,

Lanny

 

[Red_desert]

The tailing pile with the agates. I'm sure if you'd rake it down, could be some more found because just skimmed the surface.

Looking back into the SW corner. Not sure what the big flat rock is, around it are some nice flat large pieces of volcanic tuff which was formed from the layer of settled volcanic ash.

The regulars who go there like that gully next to the woods, you see work stations in the background. I'm not sure if those people know about the lamproite vein which runs SE through that part of the field. I had to use my GPS to find it again. Diamonds wash downhill from that reef.

 

[Red_desert]

Have the agate pics up now, see them here.
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,435017.0.html

A couple more of the mine field.