Californian woman finds four-carat diamond in Arkansas state park, gets to keep it

A Californian woman and her husband were in for the biggest surprise of their lives when they happened to find a yellow diamond weighing 4.38 carats at the Crater of Diamonds State Park, Arkansas. In a news release from the park, (https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/diamond-found-crater-of-diamonds-state-park/index.html) the woman, Noreen Wredberg said that she was unaware about picking up a diamond. She picked it up only because she liked its shiny and clean texture.

Noreen and her husband, Michael, are retired and spend most of their time visiting national parks, the Crater of Diamonds State Park being one. Noreen had first seen the park feature on a TV show several years ago and after an inch of rainfall on 23 September, she decided to visit the park. The sun was out after the rain and the soil was also a little dried up, creating a perfect diamond hunting condition.

The Crater of Diamonds State Park is open for the public to come and search for diamonds and if they are lucky to find one, it lets visitors keep what they find.

Finders are also allowed to name their diamonds and Noreen added a sentimental value to her gem by naming it after her husband’s kitten, Lucy’s Diamond, as the diamond is yellow in color and the kitten, although gray, has hints of yellow fur on its back.

Noreen is not sure what she will do with the gem but she did take it immediately to the park’s Diamond Discovery Centre to confirm its authenticity. Lucy’s Diamond is said to be the largest diamond found in the park in the past year.

The park’s website states that since 1906, over 75,000 diamonds have been found in the park, the largest one being a white diamond with a pink cast of 40.23 carats. The second-largest diamond was found in 2020 – a brown gem weighing a total of 9.07 carats.