In conjunction with the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission, the Crater of Diamonds State Park will be holding a Great Crater Cleanup this Saturday, September 26 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM.  Our rain day for the event will be Saturday, October 3 at the same time.  After a summer with hundreds of visitors, our diamond search area is in desperate need of a “Shine”.  Our answer to this problem is to invite our friends, neighbors, and visitors to scatter over the diamond search areas and pick up all of that ugly litter.  Who knows what kind of interesting “artifacts” will turn up! 

To sweeten the day we will be giving out T-shirts and prizes, including first, second and third prizes for the greatest amounts of litter picked up (by weight) by individuals.  We will furnish the bags and the scale to weigh your haul of litter. Anyone who participates in the cleanup will be allowed to search afterwards for free. We also will be furnishing hamburgers, ice cream, cold drinks and water.  All you have to do is show up.  Oh yes, if a visitor happens to find a diamond while he or she is participating in our Crater cleanup, then the usual rules will apply and that visitor will keep the diamond!

Also, mark your calendars for the five Saturdays in October.  Again this year we are offering our Awesome Autumn Speakers Series.  If you are a deer hunter, don’t miss Steve “Wildman” Wilson, who starts out the series on Saturday, October 3^rd.  This popular Arkansas Game and Fish Department Public Affairs Coordinator will talk about this year’s deer hunting forecast as well as demonstrate various types of animal calls.  Steve’s program starts at 3:00 PM, and will be held on the upper deck level of the Diamond Discovery Center, outside our gift shop.  On Saturday, October 10, one of our long-time “regulars”, Glenn Worthington, will talk about his adventures as a diamond hunter, and will autograph copies of the latest edition of his fascinating book, “Genuine Diamonds Found In Arkansas”.  His program will start at 7:00 PM and also be held on the upper deck level of the Diamond Discovery Center.  All of the Awesome Autumn programs are free of charge and open to the public.

Search area last plowed:  August 26, 2009, Total diamonds so far in 2009 -- 765

Diamond finds for September 13 to September 20 (100 pts. = 1 carat):  No diamonds have been found since the last one on September 8, 2009.