Something old, something new at the Crater

By Waymon Cox

  Greetings from the Crater!  When focusing on the geology of our park to help visitors enjoy their diamond search, it can be easy to forget that we also work in a unique historical park.  Over the years our diamond search area has effectively become a catalogue of artifacts, from the occasional pottery shard, to plentiful bits of glass; from crumpled relics of the commercial mining days, to crushed cola cans of yesterday.

  In many cases, the man-made objects recovered are of little value.  Glass, for instance, is one of the most common sights in the park - broken bottles from the 1950s and ‘60s.  Some folks find abandoned shoes and socks, sucked from the feet of their owners on especially-muddy days.  Broken buckets and trowels are also a common find.

  As any archaeologist knows, the depth at which something is buried can provide helpful clues for determining its age, providing that the soil hasn’t been disturbed.  Of course, this logic usually doesn’t apply at the Crater, as the regular plowing of our search area turns this timeline on its head, bringing 100-year-old artifacts to the surface and burying yesterday’s trash.

  This jumbled chronology does sometimes have interesting—and often humorous—results.  A while back, a visitor brought the head of a garden hoe found in the search area.  Solid iron construction and thick surface corrosion led most of us to believe the tool was at least thirty years old.  In an attempt to identify its brand and age, I made crayon rubbings of the tool’s surface.  I found a maker’s mark on the left side of the hoe, and after conducting a brief internet search I learned that it would have been made in 2004 at the earliest.  Exposure to the elements had given the hoe head a much older appearance!

  On the other hand, an older artifact more recently discovered was surprisingly well-preserved.  Last week a few of our “regular” diamond miners uncovered an early-20th century wooden water pipe, buried about four feet underground.  The excavated pipe measures a little under four feet in length and was made in a style similar to wooden barrels, with boards (staves) held together by spring-like metal hoops.

 
A wooden water pipe lies in a park maintenance vehicle after being excavated from the search area at Crater of Diamonds State Park in December 2009.
 
  This pipe was likely used before the Great Depression, to supply water from the nearby Little Missouri River for hydraulic sluice mining.  This technique of diamond mining used high-pressure water hoses to break down the soil and uncover diamonds, including the Uncle Sam, found in 1924.  While searching our archives, I came across a period photograph of a commercial diamond miner standing over this style of pipe, possibly the same one we found!
 
In this archived photo, Lee Wagner stands above a wooden water pipe similar to one recently unearthed at the Crater of Diamonds.
 
  Even after nearly 100 years buried, the pipe was in very good condition, with minimal deterioration of the wood or hoops.  Currently, the park is taking steps to preserve this artifact so that it may be displayed in the future as one of our unique historical treasures.  The rarity of finding these relics among items that will one day be artifacts in their own right serves as an exciting reminder that we all share a common history at the Crater of Diamonds!

 Search area last plowed:  October 20, 2009

 Diamond finds for December 14 - 20, 2009

 December 14 - Ray Beckman, Edmund, OK, 17 pt. brown

 December 15 - John Bausch, Jamesville, WI, 6 pt. white; Thomas Houser, Bossier City, LA, 7 pt. white

 December 16 - Tim Pittman, Little Rock, AR, 2 pt. brown, 6 pt. white, 40 pt. white, 86 pt. yellow, 1.09 ct. brown; David Anderson, Kent City, MI, 6 pt. yellow, 18 pt. brown

 December 18 - Chad Johnson, Murfreesboro, AR, 2 pt. white, 4 pt. white, 8 pt. white, 28 pt. white

 December 19 - Bob Horton, Murfreesboro, AR, 3 pt. brown, 14 pt. white

 December 20 - Tim Knight, Springfield, IL, 65 pt. brown; Thomas Houser, Bossier City, LA, 3 pt. white

Crater of Diamonds Home Page
209 State Park Road
Murfreesboro, AR 71958
Email: craterofdiamonds@arkansas.com
Phone: (870) 285-3113

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