Crater of Diamonds State Park, Arkansas - March 13th to 15th, 2023
Experiences are a fun way to explore the world and to explore history. Crater of Diamonds State Park is a public diamond mine. We’re not that interested in finding diamonds, but we wanted to experience what it is like to mine for them, the old-fashioned way.
Monday we drove from Talimena State Park in Oklahoma to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. We took the Talimena Scenic Drive to get there. The scenic drive is 54 miles long, from Talimena State Park in Oklahoma to the town of Mena in Arkansas. It is Oklahoma route 1 and Arkansas route 88 that runs through the Ouachita National Forest. The Ouachita National Recreation Trail crosses the road several times. There are a couple dozen vistas you can stop at along the way. The scenery reminded us a little of the Blue Ridge Parkway, with views of hazy, rolling mountains covered with trees.
We stopped at the Rich Mountain Fire Tower, hoping we could climb it, but it is not open to the public. However, we chatted a little with a nice woman from Louisiana. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, she came over and handed us a hand-crafted heart. What a wonderful, random act of kindness! Thank you so much!
We stopped in the town of Murfreesboro, just before Crater of Diamonds State Park, at the Rehkopf’s Cash Saver, for groceries. We picked up a couple of Moon Pies to try. The Moon Pie is two graham cookies with a marshmallow filling and dipped in chocolate (or other flavor of coating). It is popular in the South. Don’t confuse this with the Whoopie Pie, which is popular in New England. (Boothbay, Maine - September 30th to October 2nd, 2021). The Moon Pie is OK, but we’ll probably not be buying another one any time soon.
Keith was out of beer, but they didn’t sell beer. He asked the grocery staff where he could buy beer in town and they gave him a card for Footsie’s in the next county, about 20 minutes away. What we didn’t realize, is that many counties in Arkansas are “dry”. Of the 75 counties, 34 are dry, so we needed to drive to the next county to buy beer.
We arrived at Crater of Diamonds State Park after 5 pm, so the visitor center and camp check-in were closed. We had paid a deposit online and a tag was waiting for us at our campsite. We just needed to go over to the visitor center before 10 am the next morning to check in and pay our balance. The campground was pretty nice, with large sites that not only included full hookups, but a large picnic area with table, fire pit and a grill along with another large gravel area for setting up a tent or hanging out in chairs. The campground was in a large pine and oak forest, with lots of shade.
A group of grackles were gathered in one of the trees near us, making noises almost non-stop.
Tuesday we headed over to the visitor center around 9:15 am to finish checking in. We saw there was a diamond mining demonstration by a park interpreter at 10 am, so we wanted to allow time to make that.
Crater of Diamonds State Park is the only public diamond mine in the world. The state park was formed in 1972 and the area has been a public diamond mine ever since. The 37 acre field is the surface of a former volcanic crater. The volcanic eruption brought the diamonds up to the surface. The first diamonds found in the area were discovered in 1906. Since becoming a state park, over 35,000 diamonds have been found by park visitors, and they get to keep all that they find. Most of the diamonds found are small, but the largest diamond ever unearthed in the United States was from here, discovered in 1924 before the state park was formed. The “Uncle Sam Diamond” was 40.23 carats uncut and 12.42 carats after being cut twice.
It costs $13 per adult and $6 per child (ages 6 to 12) to enter the diamond mine per day. The 15 minute Diamond Mine 101 demonstration is included with the entry fee along with a short video showing the different mining techniques.
After the demonstration at 10 am, we walked around the field a little bit, doing “surface mining” where we just stared at the dirt looking for something to shine back at us in the sun. The field contains an old shack that covers up a collapsed mining shaft along with a couple of washing pavilions (for wet sifting) and a couple of sun shelters. At the far side of the field, there is a walking trail through the woods, called Pioneer Trail. The trail is 1.2 miles long. We were not that interested in mining for diamonds, so we hiked the trail. We had the trail all to ourselves as everyone else there was interested in mining. It was a very peaceful walk.
After our walk, we headed back to our campsite for lunch. Ann wanted to try wet sifting for diamonds, but it was still a little cool outside, so sticking her hands into cold water did not sound very inviting. We waited for the temperature to rise and went back to the mine after finishing our lunch.
You can bring your own mining equipment, as long as it is hand powered, no motorized tools are allowed. The state park also rents mining tools. Ann rented the basic kit, which includes a G.I. shovel, a bucket, and two box screens, one with larger holes than the other. The basic kit costs $15 per day, but there is a refundable deposit of $45.
After renting the equipment, Ann headed out into the field and picked out a spot. She shoveled a few scoops into the 3.5 gallon bucket, not even filling it up half way. She didn’t want to make the bucket too heavy to carry over to the washing pavilion. Besides, she wasn’t all that interested in actually finding a diamond, she just wanted to experience the process.
At the washing pavilion, she stacked the larger box screen on top of the finer box screen and put a couple shovel fulls of dirt onto the top screen. Dunking the stack of screens into the water, she broke up the clumps of dirt, letting the smaller pieces fall onto the lower screen. After removing the top box screen, she dunked the bottom screen into the water again, rocking it back and forth, rotating the screen 90 degrees, and rocking it again. The rocking process was repeated a half a dozen to a dozen times. This works the heavier pieces to the bottom and center of the screen. Then the screen is flipped onto a table. The idea is that any diamonds or other heavy gems should now be laying in the center and on top. We didn’t find any diamonds, or perhaps we missed them. Ann repeated the process a couple more times to finish sifting through the rest of the dirt in her bucket. Still no luck. Then we put all the dirt back in the bucket and hauled it back out into the field to fill in the hole she originally created.
OK, that was enough for us. After washing off the equipment at the clean up station, we returned our equipment. Ann’s hands were pretty cold. She also had mud splattered on her pant legs and shoes. Wearing tall rubber boots would probably have been better, but we didn’t have any with us.
Wednesday we went for a couple of walks. In the morning, we explored the Little Missouri River Trail. It starts right in the campground and is only a 1.2 mile loop. Nothing spectacular, just a peaceful stroll through the pine and oak forest to the river. Birds were chirping in the trees.
After lunch, we went for a longer walk. The only other trail in the park is the Wildlife Observation Blind. The trail is only a quarter of a mile long, but the trailhead is on the park road near the entrance to the park. So we walked the park road to get to the trailhead, close to a mile. We did not observe any wildlife.
We decided to continue down the park road to the highway. Less than half a mile from the park entrance is the historic Mauney House. The highway is not particularly busy, but there was no good place to walk alongside it. So we stayed on the pavement until a car came by, then we stepped off onto the steep bank next to the road, which was quite often. The Mauney House is just past the narrow bridge over Pioneer Creek. A car came while we were on the bridge. Luckily, there was no traffic in the other direction, so the car was able to move over and give us room. Not the most relaxing walk we’ve ever been on.
The Millard M. Mauney’s house was built in the 1830’s. He was the first one to open the 40 acres of the diamond mine to the public in the early 1900’s. However, his operation only lasted about one year, as the number of tourists to the area dwindled. He sold his land to corporations before it eventually became part of the state park. You can view the house from the outside and peer into the windows, but you cannot go inside.
We would not recommend walking the highway or the park road for that matter, as there is enough traffic to be annoying. Though, we did manage to get a pretty long walk in, a total of six miles with an elevation gain of 177 feet in about two hours and twenty minutes. We counted it as hike #7 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2023.
Crater of Diamonds State Park is not the most spectacular place we’ve ever been, but we really enjoyed our time there. If you’re up for a new experience, you’ll want to check it out. And who knows? Maybe you’ll even walk away with a diamond.
Check out our related video: Crater of Diamonds State Park, Arkansas
(Ann)