Found Herself A Souvenir
Have you ever visited a state park and picked yourself up a souvenir from a gift shop? Chances are you’ve just been one-upped. Bobbie Oskarson from Colorado was recently visiting Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park when she stumbled upon something of note: an 8.52-carat diamond. The Arkansas diamond is approximately three-quarters of an inch long. Around, it’s about the size of a number 2 pencil. Oskarson decided to name the diamond Esperanza, after her niece. Esperanza means hope in Spanish.
A Park Made For Finding Diamonds
Though it’s rare to find a diamond as impressive as Oskarson’s, it’s not the only Arkansas diamond humans are bound to find. The park is famous for the diamonds you are able to unearth from it. You even get to keep the diamonds that you find! The park has over 37 acres of land within its 911 acres in which you can search for the beautiful Arkansas diamonds.
Where in the Park Was It?
37 acres is quite a bit of ground to cover, and it seems like it would take quite a bit of time to comb through enough of it to find such an Arkansas diamond. Apparently that’s only if you aren’t Bobbie Oskarson. Oskarson only had to dig for about 20 minutes through several scoops of dirt. She was lucky enough to have chosen the right spot at the right time. Even more surprising, the first area she looked in wasn’t particularly one you’d want to start at or even go into. Oskarson found her impressive diamond in what is known in the park as the Pig Pen, named as such for how notoriously muddy it can get. It may not be the perfect place to search, but Oskarson’s intuition led her down the correct path in this instance.
The Fifth Largest Diamond Found There
The park has yet to provide a potential value for Oskarson’s Arkansas diamond. They did, however, note that it was the fifth largest diamond ever to be discovered at the park. The largest was 16.37 carats, nearly double the size of the diamond Oskarson stumbled across most recently.
