A French visitor found a 7.46-carat diamond in an Arkansas state park during a road trip across the US.
Julien Navas, a Paris native, was astounded to discover the massive stone on the grounds of Crater of Diamonds State Park, where visitors can hunt for and keep any diamonds they find on a 37.5-acre area, according to state officials.
Navas had traveled to the United States to watch a rocket launch in Florida before joining a friend for some fun on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
But he adjusted his plan when he learned about the unusual state park in Arkansas, which is known for its shining jewels, and opted to stop by for a visit, state officials said.
It was hard work
Navas, who had some expertise with gold panning and fossil finding, hired a rudimentary diamond hunting kit and began sifting through the muddy dirt, which had been softened by heavy rain a few days prior.
“It was hard work, so I switched to just looking on the surface for anything unusual by the afternoon,” he said.
He spent many hours collecting probable jewels before transporting them to the park’s center to see if he had struck gold – or rather, diamond. One of his discoveries, a dark brown object that seemed like a marble, turned out to be a 7.46-carat diamond, the largest found at the park since 2020 and the eighth largest in the site’s history since it opened in 1972.
The park stated that the diamond was approximately the size of a gumdrop.
“I was overjoyed!” he said when he learned the value of his discovery. “All I could think of was telling my fiancée what I found.”
He named the jewel Carine Diamond after his girlfriend and plans to have it cut into two diamonds, one for his fiancée and one for his daughter.
About the park
Crater of Diamonds State Park has produced over 75,000 diamonds since the first were discovered by a farmer on the land that subsequently became the state park.
The largest diamond ever discovered in the United States was discovered in 1924 during a mining operation on the same property.