A Navy reservist who spent 13 years hunting for gems at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, says he’s finally hit it big after unearthing a 6.03-carat yellow diamond that collectors believe could be worth more than $1 million.
Jack Pearadin found the stone with his friend Michael Schumacher of Wisconsin while shoveling gravel at the park, located about 100 miles southwest of Little Rock. The diamond didn’t reveal itself until later, when Pearadin rinsed the gravel at his home workshop.
“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Pearadin said while livestreaming the moment on TikTok. “Holy crap, we got a big one!”
The gem, about the size of a fingernail, is the largest discovered at the park this year, according to ABC. One certified gem appraiser told a news outlet the stone would typically sell for around $250,000 — far short of a million but still a substantial payday.
Pearadin plans to split the proceeds with Schumacher, who helped dig the gravel that yielded the find. He’s named the stone the “American Dream.”
A State Park Built on a Volcanic Crater
Crater of Diamonds State Park sits on 37 acres that once operated as an open pit mine before becoming a state park in 1972. The site is the eroded surface of a volcanic crater, and visitors can pay $15 a day to dig through the gravel in search of diamonds, amethysts, garnets, jaspers, agates, and quartz.
Anyone who finds something gets to keep it. More than 37,000 diamonds have been pulled from the field since the park opened, though most are small stones worth only a couple hundred dollars.
Notable finds over the years include the 40.23-carat Uncle Sam, the largest diamond ever discovered in the United States; the 16.37-carat Amarillo Starlight; the 15.33-carat Star of Arkansas; and the 8.52-carat Esperanza, according to the park. The Uncle Sam crystal was later cut and polished into a 12.42-carat diamond now on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Great American Diamonds exhibit.
Diamonds form deep underground under intense heat and pressure, then get pushed to the surface through volcanic activity before being scattered by weather and erosion, according to geologists. Natural, uncut diamonds found by hunters are often cloudy and irregularly shaped, and typically lose about a quarter of their weight once cut and polished into finished gems.
Pearadin, originally from Missouri, moved to Murfreesboro to pursue the hobby full time. “I love it that much,” he said.
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