French tourist finds 7.46-carat diamond in US national park

A French tourist struck lucky on a visit to a US national park when he found a 7.46-carat diamond in 37 acres of muddy earth.

Julien Navas from Paris was visiting Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park for the first time during a trip to the US to see the Vulcan Centaur rocket launch from Cape Canaveral when he made his discovery.

The park is one of a few places in the world where the public can search for real diamonds.

“I got to the park around nine o’clock and started to dig,” Mr Navas said.

“That is back-breaking work so by the afternoon I was mainly looking on top of the ground for anything that stood out."

Heavy rainfall a few days before Mr Navas visit helped to wash away the dirt and uncover heavy rocks, minerals and diamonds near the surface, according to assistant park superintendent Waymon Cox.

After several hours of searching, Mr Navas carried his finds to the park’s Diamond Discovery Center, where he was told he had discovered a brown diamond weighing 7.46 carats.

When he learned he had found a diamond, Mr Navas was stunned.

“I am so happy! All I can think about is telling my fiancée what I found," he said.

The diamond has a deep chocolate brown colour and is rounded like a marble. Mr Navas said he would name his find the Carine Diamond after his fiancée and said he hoped to have the stone cut into two diamonds, one for his fiancée and one for his daughter.

According to assistant park superintendent Waymon Cox, many of the park’s largest diamonds are found on the surface. “We periodically plow the search area to loosen the diamond-bearing soil and promote natural erosion,” he said.

“It is always so exciting to see first-time visitors find diamonds, especially large diamonds like this one!” said park interpreter Sarah Reap.

Mr Navas described the Crater of Diamonds State Park as "a magical place, where the dream of finding a diamond can come true! It was a real great adventure.”

Brown diamonds are not as valuable as white ones but the gem could still be worth in the region of approximately $28,000.

The Carine Diamond is the fifth diamond registered at Crater of Diamonds State Park in 2024. It is the largest diamond registered at the park since 2020, when Kevin Kinard found the 9.07-carat Kinard Friendship Diamond over Labor Day Weekend. It is the eighth-largest diamond registered since the Crater of Diamonds became an Arkansas State Park in 1972.

Eleven diamonds have been registered at Crater of Diamonds State Park in 2024. An average of one to two diamonds are found by park visitors each day.

In total, more than 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed at Crater of Diamonds State Park since the first diamonds were discovered by John Huddleston, a farmer who owned the land long before it became an Arkansas State Park in 1972.

The largest diamond ever discovered in the United States was unearthed in 1924 during an early mining operation on the land that later became the state park.

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