To mark their 10th anniversary, a couple from Chatfield, Minnesota, embarked on an 11-state road trip in early November. Their romantic getaway fortuitously resulted in the finding of a diamond that weighed almost two carats. Having heard about Arkansas’s Crater of Diamonds National Park years ago, Jessica and Seth Erickson slotted the destination into their…

At Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, a would-be treasure hunter “wet sifts” through pay dirt with a set of screens. Immersed in water, finer material washes away, leaving coarser rocks caught in the metal mesh. Sometimes, there are diamonds. It was here, at the East Drain of the park’s 37.5-acre tilled soil search…

A retired California couple struck paydirt while visiting Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas late last month when the soil yielded the visitors a large, pear-shaped yellow diamond. Noreen Wredberg and her husband Michael from Granite Bay spend much of their time traveling to national parks in the United States; and found themselves at…

Christian Liden has nurtured a dream since 8th grade: to one day create an engagement ring for his future wife out of materials he himself mined. It was this dream that propelled him to Arkansas’s Crater of Diamonds State Park where he discovered a 2.20 carat yellow diamond—especially precious. Liden, 26, made the 2,000-mile trip from Poulsbo,…