Crater of Diamonds Arkansas State Park

Our family took the long way home from Illinois to Florida just to make a side trip to this amazing state park in Arkansas.  The Crater of Diamonds State Park located in Murfreesboro, Arkansas is one the few places in the world where the general public can dig for diamonds.

Hunting For Diamonds

This is a great place for kids to learn hands on about diamonds and different ways to search for them.  We found the history of the diamond field to be fascinating and, of course, we were in awe of all the diamonds that had been found there.

The day started out with a heavy rain, making the diamond field muddy.   We set out, armed with a small bucket and gardening trowels we bought at the gift store.    Our hopes were high that we would find a diamond in the huge 37 acre field.

We were told this was a great time to do surface searches for diamonds.  We tried, but kept sinking in the mud.  Rubber boots would have been a great idea to wear.

We relented and rented a diamond mining kit.  It included a bigger bucket, shovel and duel sifting screens.  Screening the mud, yielded a lot of rocks, but no diamonds.  We did find quartz, agate and  other types of rocks.

This was such a unique experience for us.  We all had a fantastic time even though we did not find any diamonds, although I did find an amethyst while surface searching.

Camping

We did discover other things to do at the state park.  There is a campground on site.  This would make a great camping trip if you are in the area.

The camp sites looked spacious with plenty of room between campers.

There is also a small waterpark located adjacent to the mining field that kids would love, especially after digging for diamonds all day.

If you are up for an adventure and want your kids to mine diamonds in real life instead of on a video game than this is one park you don’t want to miss.  We all had a extraordinary time playing in the mud, looking for those elusive diamonds and dreaming of what we would do if we actually found one.  This was absolutely one of our favorite parks and we will cherish the memories made here.

A few things I would recommend is to bring are rubber boots, digging tools, bug spray and sunscreen.

These boots would have been awesome to have for this trip.  You can find them here.

This mining kit would also have been cool to have.  You can rent a kit, but sometimes it’s nice to have your own.  You can find it here.

Happy Camping!

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