Crater gift shop opens in new location

By Waymon Cox

  Greetings from Crater of Diamonds State Park!  During 2009, our park will undergo a number of major changes.  Due to upcoming repairs and renovations scheduled for our visitor center, the gift shop has been in the process of moving out for the past few weeks.  On Monday, it reopened its doors in a new location—the upper level of the Diamond Discovery Center.

  “I’m very excited,” says gift shop facility manager Patricia Thomas of the new locale.  She notes that this is the closest the gift shop has ever been to the diamond search area.  “This is a much more convenient and much more customer-friendly location.  As far as customer service goes, this is the way it always should have been.”

  Another benefit to the new location is the view.  Now, visitors have an overlook view of the diamond search area from the gift shop.  “We can see the field so much easier from here,” says Patricia, “Visitors can tell how muddy the field may be before they go out there.”

  With the upcoming addition of a ticket window to help handle a constant stream of visitors in the seasons to come, the Crater’s gift shop will become the first point of contact most visitors will have with our park staff.

Diamond Finds for January 13 - 18, 2009

January 13 - Chad Johnson, Murfreesboro, AR, 48 pt. white, 1.20 ct. brown

January 17 - Thomas Houser, Bossier City, LA, 23 pt. white

January 18 - Billy Moore, Alma, AR, 2 pt. white, 3 pt. brown, 3 pt. brown, 5 pt. white, 12 pt. brown, 52 pt. white