By Margi Jenks

  Yesterday, a search lead by Daniel J. Kinney III and Thayer Walker found the ninth largest diamond since the southeast Arkansas diamond crater became Crater of Diamonds State Park.  Joined by Eytan Elterman and Jessica Higley, Kinney and Walker found the deep yellow 6.67 carat beauty on November 28, 2011, their second day of prospecting. Kinney, from Sault Ste. Marie, MI, is an expert diamond hunter, having visited Crater of Diamonds State Park more than twenty times. The “Teamwork Diamond”, as the friends named it, is the 34^th diamond Kinney has found. It is Walker’s first.

  Thayer Walker and Eytan Elterman are both from San Francisco, CA.  Walker is an Outside magazine correspondent and chief reconnaissance officer at Summit Series, an annual business conference. Elterman makes documentary films.  Sunday afternoon the friends dug 21 buckets of diamond soil from the west drain.  The next morning they were washing soil when Walker looked up from his screen and said, “Dan, what is this?”  Kinney took a look and exclaimed “It’s a diamond and oh my gosh, it’s huge!”

  It was indeed a large diamond, weighing in at 6.67 carats.  About the size of a marble, the deep yellow diamond is a rounded square shape with a pit in one end and a frosted skin.

  Waymon Cox, Park Interpreter, says that “this is the second largest diamond registered in 2011”.  In 2011 a total of 501 diamonds have been turned in and registered. This year’s largest diamond, the white 8.66 ct. Illusion Diamond, was found in April by Beth Gilbertson, a friend of Kinney.

  “I’m working on a book about precious gems and metals,” says Walker, the Outside magazine correspondent. “This makes a nice first chapter.”

  Crater of Diamonds State Park is the world’s only diamond-producing site open to the public.  Diamonds can come in all colors of the rainbow.  The three most common colors found at the park are white, yellow and brown, in that order.  An average of two diamonds a day is unearthed by park visitors. The park staff provides free identification and registration of diamonds.  Park interpretive programs and exhibits explain the site’s geology and history and offer tips on recognizing diamonds in the rough.

  Over 40 different rocks and minerals are unearthed at the Crater of Diamonds, making it a rock hound's delight.  The other semi-precious gems and minerals include amethyst, garnet, peridot, jasper, agate, calcite, barite, and quartz.

  Crater of Diamonds State Park is located two miles southeast of Murfreesboro, AR.  It is one of the 52 state parks administered by the State Parks Division of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.  For more information, contact:  Justin Dorsey, park superintendent, Crater of Diamonds State Park, 209 State Park Road, Murfreesboro, Arkansas 71958.  Phone:  870-285-3113.  E-mail:  justin.dorsey@arkansas.gov.  Or visit www.CraterofDiamondsStatePark.com.

Search area last plowed:  October 20, 2011

 

Most recent significant precipitation:  November 27, 2011

 

Diamond finds for November 20 - 26, 2011 (100 points = one carat):

 

November 20 - Beverly Taylor, Maryland Heights, MO, 5 pt. yellow, 7 pt. yellow

 

November 23 - Ray Rocha, Tyler, TX, 17 pt. yellow; Mike Ellison, Kings Mountain, NC, 5 pt. white; Ashley Ley, Trophy Club, TX, 12 pt. white

 

No diamonds found November 23 - 26.