Crater of Diamonds Newsletter

For the third time in seven years, the Crater of Diamonds State Park maintenance department has been named as the 2011 best maintenance department in the state park system. In 2010 the department was recognized as the best in this southwest Arkansas park region, which has also happened in numerous recent years. Larry McKinnon heads up the department, with full time workers Jerry Laurent, Lanny Nichols, Matthew Humphrey, and summer part time help Buck Brannon, Justin Nuckols, Matthew Graham, and Jayson Cox. Their workload is not only keeping the park grounds neat and tidy, but also includes 5 major park buildings, a water park, a 47-site campground with two bath houses, and 5 staff residences. They maintain the washing pavilions out on the diamond search field, and make sure that the entire field is plowed once a month.

However, what makes this department stand out is not only their efficiency in doing the routine maintenance work, but their willingness to take on new projects. Over the past two years, to make the renovation of the visitor center possible, they have turned a classroom into a gift shop and a picnic pavilion into the park offices. This project was complex and required an ability to adapt to unexpected problems. Then, they had to do it all over again after the renovation was finished—moving the offices back into an enlarged space, and the gift shop into a larger area and increased storage space. Finally, they have been essential to the process of creating the new park exhibits, including building a replica of the inside of a 1914 diamond ore processing plant.

Their efforts have also made the Crater park more energy and monetarily efficient. They collect all the materials for the park recycling program, picked up weekly by the Howard County Children’s Center. The entire park has been changed over to energy efficient lighting, and park buildings are all on energy efficient programmable thermostats. The maintenance building is solely heated with wood from the park’s forest. Under the direction of Park Ranger Matt Briley, the maintenance department’s vigilance and innovation in handling expensive pool chemicals has made this the only park water feature that makes a profit. Finally, the maintenance department has established a bio-diesel mini-plant that turns the cooking oil from our restaurant into fuel that is then used in the park 4-wheelers and other vehicles. The parks department management hopes to copy this technology in the other parks that have restaurants.

As our assistant superintendent, Bill Henderson, says, “The Crater of Diamonds State Park maintenance department is becoming the gold standard for the other parks in the 52-park system to imitate”.

Search area last plowed: October 20, 2011; Most recent heavy rain: November 8, 2011

November 12- Tim Pittman, Jacksonville, AR, 10 pt. white; Lynn Hale, Franklin, NC, 12 pt. yellow