Crater of Diamonds Newsletter

Greetings from Crater of Diamonds! Each year, hundreds of travelers come to the Crater with what has often been called man’s best friend. Some days it seems like the park is hosting its own dog show, so many different breeds are present. No matter the type of dog, while at the park most owners are likely to hear that their pooches are “diamond-digging dogs.”

For years, dog lovers have come and gone, hearing this expression and laughing it off as most people would, never lending much credence to the idea of a dog actually finding a diamond. However, the minds of many changed on Saturday, May 30, 2009, when a two-year-old yorkie named Tigger visited Crater of Diamonds State Park for the first time.

Gerald Brown of DeQueen, Arkansas has visited the Crater numerous times over the past months with his human kin. Last weekend, however, he was destined to search alone while his wife visited family in Texas. Alone, that is, until he saw Tigger. “She was sitting there, giving me the puppy dog eyes,” said Gerald, “I just couldn’t leave her behind.”

By two o’clock on the afternoon of May 30, Gerald and Tigger were spending their first day at the Crater together. While sifting in the diamond search area, Gerald noticed his dog chewing on something nearby. “I thought she had a wasp or some sort of bug in her mouth,” he said of the dog’s actions, “and I went over to get a better look at what she had.”

As Gerald approached the small, gray dog, Tigger dropped the object and the sun flashed on its shiny exterior. At first glance, to Gerald it appeared to be a piece of glass. “I reached down and tried to get it from her and she started growling at me, so I knocked it away and then picked it up. After I really got a good look at it, I said to myself, ‘This has to be a diamond!’”

Indeed it was! The icy white gem weighed 1.11 carats and was about the size of a pencil eraser with a beautiful octahedral crystal shape. Gerald was as excited as Tigger as I revealed the diamond’s weight and handed them a card bearing Tigger’s name, certifying the stone as a genuine Crater diamond.

When asked about future plans for the diamond, Gerald replied that he isn’t sure what they’ll do with the gem, but he’ll definitely never go diamond mining without Tigger “The Diamond-Digger” again!

May 25 - Billy Moore, Murfreesboro, AR, 7 pt. white, 8 pt. yellow; Adhya Jumar, Edmond, OK, 4 pt. white; Tammy Giesler, Panama, OK, 32 pt. brown

May 26 - Robert N. Ford, Waldron, AR, 65 pt. white, 99 pt. brown; Hakan Vultaggio, Denver, CO, 3 pt. white; Denton Vultaggio, Denver, CO, 7 pt. white

May 30 - Johnny Jeffries, Sherman, TX, 20 pt. white; Tigger Brown, DeQueen, AR, 1.11 ct. white