Seeking Diamonds, Avoiding Dirt

Hope Springs Eternal (Even When Slightly Unrealistic)

You can’t help but hope you’ll be the one to beat the odds. Whether it’s winning the lottery or finding miraculous healing, most of us dream of being the recipient of a miracle. And some of us even buy a lottery ticket or two.

So when Roger and I read the sign, “Over 33,623 found by visitors since becoming a state park in 1972,” we couldn’t help hoping we’d be the ones to score a selfie holding up the 33,624^th diamond found at Crater of Diamonds State Park.

Why This Long Shot Seemed Worth It

At Crater of Diamonds in Arkansas, diamond-seeking visitors can purchase an inexpensive ticket giving access to the field where all those diamonds have been found. And believe it or not, you’re allowed to keep whatever gems you find.

If you were allowed to tour a diamond mine in South Africa, they say you probably wouldn’t recognize a rough diamond right in front of your eyes. They don’t glitter like diamonds at Kay Jewelers. Instead, South African diamonds reportedly have a dull, greasy, or glassy appearance. I’d probably stroll right on by, not wanting to get my hands dirty, never realizing the fortune I left behind.

But at Crater of Diamonds, the average person can recognize a diamond with just a little practice. What you’re looking for are smooth, rounded, glassy-looking stones. These diamonds can be white, brown, or yellow—and many visitors do find them, at a rate of 1-2 per day. Sure, they’re small, usually about the size of a match head (maybe 1/12 of a carat), but a diamond is a diamond. And I’d sure love to pick one up for myself—I mean, for posterity.

Why are these diamonds relatively easy to find? Because they were literally shot out of a volcano long ago. The eruption formed a huge crater, and erosion has exposed the diamond-bearing material for our eyes. The diamond crater field is regularly plowed, too, which raises your odds of finding real treasure.

So shortly before Christmas, this state park has a certain appeal: What a great place for Roger to score last-minute “I have no idea what to get her” gifts! And that’s where we ended up, eager to get started with screens and trowels.

Reality Check Via YouTube

Arriving at the state park, the weather looked promising, even though it was December. We immediately started asking questions. How much are tickets? How long til we find a diamond? Can we bring a stool to sit on while we dig? How deep do we have to dig? Anybody find a diamond today or yesterday?

But between the Visitor’s Center personnel and YouTube, reality hit hard. This wasn’t a walk in the park—it could be hours of tedious work, kind of like panning for gold in California or Alaska. We weighed the pros (a unique experience even if we came up empty handed, finding gems besides just diamonds) and cons (carrying the equipment, digging for hours, back pain). Still, think about what we might end up with! Wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to say we found a diamond?

In the end, we made the tough but realistic decision: we’d rather watch others do the rough work. We’d just have to be content admiring the results in the gift shop. And that choice probably should have forewarned us about what followed.

We Didn’t Give Up

Back in Alabama, friends had proudly showed us their large collection of geodes and crystals. In the same area of Arkansas we were now in, they’d visited a place called Twin Creek Crystal Mine Ark, about an hour from our campground. They found their gems “just lying around on the ground.” Okay, we thought, maybe that’s more in line with our low tolerance for back-breaking work. We gave our friends a call, got the lowdown, and headed out.

Elon (Nearly) Saved the Day

Arriving via gravel road at the alleged GPS location for Twin Creek, we found only a locked gate. This in spite of the fact that Roger called before leaving camp and was told the mine would be open until 3 or 4 pm that day.

And that’s when Elon Musk saved the day. Well, kind of.

A few months before hitting the road with our fifth wheel, Roger and I purchased a Starlink Mini and attached it to the roof of our truck. Voila! WiFi anywhere the sky was at least semi-clear of obstructions. Faced with that locked gate and no cell reception, we were able to call the mine to find out what was up.

“Well, I’m sure sorry,” the drawling voice told us. “But she broke an ankle and we had to close down early today to get her to the hospital.” No idea who “she” was, but apparently the mine couldn’t operate without her, so we were out of luck at Twin Creek.

Okay, we had a Plan B (or maybe it was Plan C): Another place, Wegner Crystal Mine was a couple of miles back on the same gravel road. Now we’re going to find some cool rocks, we thought.

When Enthusiasm Meets Red Dirt

Within an hour, Roger and I found ourselves creeping slowly around in a recently plowed red dirt field full of tailings from the crystal mine. “Oh, yeah,” we were told, “you can find lots of crystals out there just lying around.” So why were we the only ones out there on such a nice day? Where were all the other gem seekers?

And, by the way, what are we looking for again? About 15 minutes into our search, we got the giggles. We truly did not know what we were doing. Standing there with red dirt caked on my tennis shoes, I finally admitted how much I wanted this to be easy and how disappointed I was that it wasn’t, at least not for us.

Technology Wasn’t Encouraging, Either

Sorry, readers, I wish I could give you a sparkling ending to this saga. Roger and I determinedly picked up lots of fist-sized rocks that looked like hopeful specimens and a few that definitely included crystals, but we didn’t end up with much to brag about.

Back at camp, we began washing off our hopefuls. Then we got the bright idea of using Google Search to help us identify what to toss and what was worth keeping. But even that disappointed when Google identified one small rock as a “benign tumor” on Roger’s palm. And we ended up chucking half the rocks. I’m not sure why we kept the rest, although you might see a couple of the crystals displayed in our next sticks-and-bricks house as if they were the Hope Diamond. We’ll see.

Facing Facts: Finding Treasure Might Require Discomfort

If we’re being honest, our experience that day reflects some of the dreams we chase in life. We want amazing outcomes like transformation, healing, or supernatural joy, but we also want to avoid the down-and-dirty process, especially if it means effort, discomfort, or—heaven forbid—humility.

Looking back, maybe we weren’t really after diamonds or crystals. We were chasing the story, the thrill of discovering something rare without paying the price. Sometimes our disappointment isn’t about what we didn’t find—it’s about pulling back the curtain on why I wanted the treasure in the first place. And sometimes unmet expectations are better teachers than undeserved success.

Have you ever searched for something and ended up discovering something different, maybe better? Share your story in the comments below.