Who wouldn't want to find their own sparkly, uncut diamond lying out in the middle of a dirt field? The D-Team decided to try their hand at diamond hunting out at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas.... and ultimately returned completely empty-handed. Only four tiny diamonds were found by anyone that day at the park, but it was still nice to be out in the sun digging through dirt. :)
The number of people out in the fields, and how seriously they take their treasure hunting, was shocking. Folks were pulling wagonloads of tools and food coolers, like they'd been there many times before. It was kinda crazy!
The state park comprises almost 40 acres of land on which 35,250 diamonds have been found since 1972. 1,046 of those were over 1 carat in size.
Our second and more successful rock-hunting stop was the Wegner Crystal Ranch in Mount Ida, Arkansas. The prize...quartz crystals!
After a brief safety meeting, groups are taken up to the mine via a converted truck and a rough, hilly gravel road... the adventurous ride itself is worth the mining price, LOL.
Once at the mine, we were set free to explore and search for quartz...and because it's a mine, the quartz was quite plentiful. Smaller pieces were lying around waiting to be picked up, while larger treasures awaited discovery with more effort. This made it a wonderful family experience...the little boys were excited with all the beautiful pieces already uncovered while big people enjoyed digging for more exquisite rewards.
We had wonderful weather and the quartz all over the ground sparkled in the sunlight.
Even our little guy with a short attention span stayed engaged the full two hours of mining.
Wegner Ranch was an incredible mining company to tour with... wonderful staff, reasonable prices, and abundant results. We would definitely mine with them again if we ever returned to the area...so check them out during your next trip to Arkansas!
The middle and left quartz rocks pictured here are two of my favorite finds...I can't remember who the third one belongs to:)
Thus ended our two days of hunting for sparkly rocks...we failed once and were successful once (honestly, it would be hard to fail at Wegner ranch, LOL), taking home several bags of quartz. Don't ask what we'll do with these gorgeous geological specimens cuz we don't really know, but it was more about the experience than the results anyway. At the worst, our rock beds around the house will feature some unique remnants of Arkansas. :)
Until next time, God bless!
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