In the four years I’ve worked at JCK, we’ve published more than a few stories about Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Ark. It’s the only diamond mine in the world open to the public, and it’s located atop an eroded volcanic pipe in southwest Arkansas. At least once a year, we’ll run an article about a sizable discovery there—like the 3.85 ct. canary yellow diamond 14-year-old Tana Clymer uncovered in April (she sold it for a cool $20,000). //

Hard describes not only the toil required to find a diamond in Crater of Diamonds State Park, it also describes the soil: a rich field of lamproite, after the Greek word meaning glistening, a reference to the shiny mica crystals found in this type of volcanic rock. (Let’s not forget that hard also describes the finished product.) //

We had been told by Waymon Cox, an interpreter for the park, to look for visible signs of erosion.

“You have to dig in the low areas and look for gravel—that usually means colorful rocks and minerals, like jasper, hematite,” Cox told us. “You want to dig in the washouts, between the rows, off the sides of the pathways, wherever you find these little trenches where water has washed through. You don’t have to dig a deep hole—the deeper you dig, the more you’re limiting yourself.”

Finding a spot to break ground was a mystifying process. Cox had said that many of the most prominent diamonds found over the past year had been plucked from the surface, where they’d settled after years of erosion.