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PARK VISITOR FROM LOUISIANA FINDS 2.89-CARAT WHITE DIAMOND AT ARKANSAS’S CRATER OF DIAMONDS STATE PARK Names Stone the Jax Diamond for His Infant Son, Jackson (MURFREESBORO, Ark.)-Brandon Kalenda’s mother-in-law watched the segment of TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” where the Jim Bob Duggar family visited the Crater of Diamonds State Park. She decided that her family also needed to experience Arkansas’s diamond site, and talked them all into it. So during their travels through Arkansas last week from Louisiana to Minnesota to visit family, they stopped to enjoy the park. While they searched in the park’s 37 ½-acre search area, Kalenda, who lives in Maurepas, Louisiana, unearthed a 2.89-carat white diamond. He named his stone the Jax Diamond after his infant son, Jackson. Kalenda told park staff he plans to keep the diamond.
According to Park Interpreter Margi Jenks, “No two diamonds in the rough are alike. This is a triangular-shaped diamond with a metallic appearance, and it’s about the size of an English pea.” She noted that this was Brandon Kalenda’s first time to visit the park. He’d watched the Discovery Channel’s “Gold Rush” and figured diamond hunting was like looking for gold, and that a diamond would be in a pocket of little rocks. “Sure enough, Brandon found his diamond after searching for about 20 minutes in the Fugitt’s Bank area of the park’s search area,” Jenks said. “We encourage park visitors to look for pockets or layers on the surface of gravel, and search there. That’s exactly what Brandon was doing.” Jenks noted that the Jax Diamond is the 47th diamond registered by a park visitor this year, and the fourth diamond weighing over a carat found at the park since the middle of February.
She emphasized, “Conditions are perfect for diamond hunting right now. The park staff plowed the diamond search field at the end of January, and the park received about one and a quarter inch of rain on Sunday—a good, hard washing rain.” Jenks continued, “Diamonds are a bit heavy for their size, and they lack static electricity, so rainfall slides the dirt off diamonds that are on the surface of the search field leaving them exposed. When the sun comes out, they’ll shine and be noticeable.”
Search area last plowed: End of January, 2014; Most recent significant rainstorms: 1.2”, March 2, 2014 Total diamonds found in 2014: 51 Diamonds registered for March 2-March 9, 2014 (100 points = 1 carat): March 2 - No diamonds were registered March 3 - Adam Hardin, Norton, OH, 96 pt. white March 4 - Daniel Kinney, Sault Ste. Marie, MI, 5 pt. white; Kenneth Shoemaker, Murfreesboro, AR, 25 pt. brown March 5 - No diamonds were registered March 6 - Branden Kalenda, Maurepas, LA, 2.89 carat white; Timothy Gray, Royal, AR, 34 pt. white March 7 - Jim Graham, Prescott, AR, 3 pt. white, 11 pt. white, 37 pt. white March 8 - Kenny & Melissa Oliver, Rosston, AR, 2 pt. white |
209 State Park Road
Murfreesboro, AR 71958
Email: craterofdiamonds@arkansas.com
Phone: (870) 285-3113
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