Man from France finds 7.46-carat diamond on first visit to Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — A man from France has found the latest diamond in the state after visiting Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park.

During his first visit to the state park last week, Julien Navas, of Paris, found a 7.46-carat diamond on the surface of the park’s 37.5-acre search area, according to theArkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism.

Navas’ diamond has a deep chocolate brown color and is rounded like a marble. The park service said it is about the size of a candy gumdrop.

A few days before Navas’ visit, the park said they had received over an inch of rain, making it a wet and muddy day. After purchasing his ticket and renting a basic diamond hunting kit from the park, Navas headed into the search area and got to work.

“I got to the park around nine o’clock and started to dig,” he said. “That is back-breaking work so by the afternoon I was mainly looking on top of the ground for anything that stood out."

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,” Cox said. “As rain falls on the field, it washes away the dirt and uncovers heavy rocks, minerals and diamonds near the surface.”

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

When he learned that he had found a diamond, Navas was stunned and said, “I am so happy! All I can think about is telling my fiancée what I found.”

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

Navas found the 11th diamond 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, over 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed 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.