The World's Only Public Diamond Mine - Crater of Diamonds

so people have literally moved their lives here because of this place they live in peanuts they hunt diamonds some big old fat honker I know they found well over a hundred diamonds they do say this diamond mine is capable Perdition on kids plus it could be a TV series if you like this video be sure to subscribe so you can explore something new when we release more content on average people find one diamond here every day since the mines discovery over 33,000 diamonds have come out of this 37 acre field including seven of the ten largest diamonds ever found in the United States [Music] the best part you can look for diamonds here in fact anyone can because this is the world's only public diamond mine in the southwest corner of Arkansas lies a true hidden gem this is the only public diamond mine in the world with some of history's largest diamonds being found here a strong and devoted community of diamond hunters form this is the crater of diamonds [Music] we've all seen what happens when people compete for a limited resource [Applause] they go wild and when it comes to something as valuable as diamonds [Applause] we've seen what people are willing to do so as we entered the park we wondered what happens when you mix this aspect of human nature with the world's flashiest material but more importantly what does it actually feel like to find something it's valuable as a diamond something old fat honker well we did join the hunt we first got a chance to talk with some locals and season two miners all states have parts that help rivers like streams Mountain whatever everybody has that there's only one state that's got a diamond mine where you can keep it and that's Arkansas and that's because three billion years ago long before plants and animals first appeared in the fossil record diamonds were being forged 100 miles down in the upper mantle of the Earth's molten core 2,000 degree magma and pressures 55,000 times greater than on Earth's surface are the crucible in which ordinary carbon atoms crystallized into precious gems [Music] under ordinary circumstances the diamonds may remain here trapped 13 times deeper than humans have ever drilled however in certain cases such as 95 million years ago pressure within the mantle builds to a breaking point molten rock is forced through fissures in the Earth's crust forming structures known as volcanic pipes carrying diamonds to the surface one case in particular occurred in what is now known as Murphysboro Arkansas here these diamonds lay hidden as ice ages passed on nations were born until 1906 when John Wesley Huddleston noticed the glint of two huge gems on the ground near his farmhouse after realizing that his modest property was situated on top of a diamond honey hole he sold the land for a handsome sum of $36,000 today that would be equal to around 1 million dollars the rush was on hotels and Murphysboro had to turn away thousands of hopeful miners each month as they flooded into town seeking diamonds the farm changed hands several times between commercial mining companies which found varying degrees of success until 1972 the state of Arkansas acquired the land for six million dollars when accounting for inflation it was now up to the public to do the digging and they did there are many places around the world where small diamonds can be found scattered sparsely in rivers and gravel beds where they have been unearthed by the element however the most productive mines are located directly at the source the volcanic pipes which brought them to the surface in the first place the Crater of Diamonds State Park is the only place in the world where anyone and everyone can access one of these volcanic pipes for a nominal fee of $10 this unique situation has elevated Arkansas's diamonds onto the state flag and minted them onto the state court they've even graced the hand of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she wore the Conn canary diamond during the 1994 presidential inauguration the Crater of Diamonds lie secluded in the southwest corner of Arkansas about halfway between Dallas and Memphis it is frequented by vacationing families diamond enthusiasts and locals last year's record-setting over 180,000 people came to the mine it was a very busy year how many diamonds have been found here it ever did more than one a day and that's from just like regular everyday people who rigged those few who do find diamonds come from all walks of life young old first-timers and experts what matters most is the time spent sifting and searching a hobby which attracts many people what about the regulars I mean I would imagine you get quite the slew of characters uh yes sir we see people all walked a lot I know that people have had life-changing experience due to large diamond finds yeah I know I can if it's if they find diamonds I'm you know tens of thousands of dollars that's a that's a huge deal it could be a lot a you know it's you know like everybody says retirement you know I don't know about retirement you don't do retirement depends on what your lifestyle yeah up here we got they live in tents they live in tents they hunt diamonds so that's still happening today yeah yeah we got people how far away it just is just a mile and they're so they live I said do they live like off the grid you know they're there I won't say David Emma clear but they live very very minimal you only live in a tent yeah why don't you have a beautiful but if they're not here there they go to Arizona look for gold if they're not and Arizona they'll go to Carolinas look for sapphires and stuff so what kind of people there that is just rockhounding and people that love to the search for search for don't purchase tombs so people have literally moved their lives here because of this place sure that's wild yeah sure and luckily we found just that person could we talk with you if we don't have the mic on you sure yeah all this really how many diamonds have you found what sifting over 200 diamonds holy cow so what do you do with your diamonds when you find them you have like a little collection jar or keep them off do you have big plans for them well I mean if you have 200 so far you're on track day it's something another 40 years they don't have follow and so are there other people that are as as into it as you are at one time there was so it's a dying breed the rock hound yeah we want to sit in our chairs and yeah yeah they mine on be jeweled and yeah candy crush that's how they get their fix yeah I'll help you move up on that yeah these are heavy yeah for 20 up man oh boy hey is this is this a diamond finally I found my diamond of the day so what got you hooked look what kept you coming back seen them big uns they had Lamas Jim cut you know [Music] [Music] I consider myself as a regular you found diamonds oh I have I found seven so far if you find a diamond you have you're the first person to lay eyes on it you discovered it so that in itself is just an amazing feat so whenever you're ready I'll walk you through this despite there being a lot that goes into wet sifting Deborah gave us the full crash course well first you're gonna go out in the feeling you want to find gravel you want to put that right in the top screen all you'll do is you'll stick this into the water now run your hands through here to clean out your top screen just island no that's not that's just lamp right that's a volcanic rock now if a diamond is big enough to be in the screen you're gonna see it you're having a good day yeah oh you're having a very good day a lot of the diamonds here are small about the size of a match tink head that would be a quarter carat now we're gonna go to the table like flipping a cake out of a pan all the heavy stuff went to the bottom of the screen so now it's on top of your pile you have a diamond it's gonna be somewhere in here it will shine so much that your eye is immediately usually drawn right to it so you know so you know right here is our diamond you're gonna scoop underneath and you're gonna put it in the palm of your hand and close it up you would take this straight to the Diamond Discovery Center where they will certify it for you they'll tell you the size of it the color and they'll put it in a nice fancy box for you well in fact he's got his diamonds to show you what they look like come on over how many diamonds have you found one two three four five and six yeah that's great if you want to break it down into money I'm deep in the hole as far as what I spent and what I got in diamonds but it's worth nobody has ever found a million dollar diamond but they do say this diamond - so you think people come here and mined for the money are they mining for the diamond some originally do uh-huh but then then it's like going to a casino you realized quickly this ain't a way to make a living yeah so it is kind of like gambling you know you're just spending your your time and efforts and not necessarily it's a lottery ticket with exercise so you have some benefits some health benefits yes it's not just that anyone can find diamonds here many of the diamonds found are record-setting like the straw and Wagner diamond regarded as a one-in-a-billion stone it is thought to be the most perfect and internally flawless diamond ever found or the 40 carat Uncle Sam diamond the largest ever found in the US or the star of murphy's from the Esperanza diamond the hopi dopey duck the Amarillo Slam leader God's glory man the star of Schreber blue bird and limitless dollar diamond so we wanted to find one [Music] I earned our classic you think I believe it's a diamond learn 94 aerial it's like two pounds so we checked it with bill that good big quartz right there the hardness is how you tell a quartz has a hardness of eight core diamonds or ten horse has a hardness of eight by rotten calcite has hardest two and a half three so I should carry this around cross analyze what I'm looking at first this is not diamond during summer the busiest season of the park temperatures can rise above 110 degrees at high humidity and diamond hunters can be caught in surprisingly dangerous conditions here for last week 860 people off the line 60 people that are yet to take someone we carried off an animist lot on we just patch them down in ice and they come out and they're not used to this humidity and they come out here and they get looking and all sudden they realize that they've worked too hard during what they thought it was and they can't get back it's a dangerous sport huh right it could be it could be good we spent the next few hours among the masses searching for diamonds while our efforts proved fruitless one of our new friends let us validate their find possibly a diamond we're gonna round that up to get the 8 so 58 points okay so that's about half a carat it's a little over half a carat okay this starts at 9 it goes all the way up so almost 10 years of diamonds yes and this one so as far as the state park I mean you guys don't like take any cut or any responsibility for finding the Diamonds correct it's all on the person that found you they do whatever they want once they have that diamond if there's diamonds are ranked on a scale that looks like this the four C's the more color a diamond has the worst at scores and as for clarity the most valuable gems will have none of these cuts range from ideal to poor and rely on the craftsmanship of the gem cutter and carat weight well that's easy [Music] aside from the diamonds what really makes this place are the people and fortunately for us we stumbled into a diamond mined frequenter named Tex fine and diamond has is basically its luck its luck or its fate getting that diamond is gonna be where it wants you to find it I don't have any luck so what I'm trying to do is beat the odds I'll come out and do more travel two days and then I take it down and then I'll come back and more travel for two days now take a weekend [Music] when you've held that diamond in your hand for the first time there's this little adrenaline rush it just goes through you and it's kind of been like a full-time job your new full-time job oh no it's not a job this is the way I relax yeah this is this is a big stressor for me yet I didn't know what to do with myself my wife passed away last year and I needed something to do to keep myself occupied you know otherwise I'd be sitting in front of a TV or I mean you go a hunt and fish so much you know you got to have other things to do so I come up here like I said a couple of times each year and I'll spend months two months and and I'll dig for now so you're all about the chase huh yeah yeah it's just the the treasure hunter thing you know and there and it's not a matter of finding something big or you know planting a bunch of money or whatever I mean I found I've only got eight diamonds my largest is only a 12 point and I mean that's tiny you know mm-hmm but every one of those eight is special to me you know because I found it I found it it's yours you're the first person to lay your eyes on and then they you know and I said well how much would it burn I don't know what they're worth and I wouldn't sell one if I did what does the community like that's built around this area actually yep that's pretty tight yes buddy really we lost him out here this last year he was out here at the mine and he had a massive heart attack Mali's while he is hunting for diamonds yeah he was Mullen just buckets of dirt back up here in the atom master part at that passed away out here tonight but the thing is that I mean Dennis it found between us is laughs I know they found well over a hundred diamonds if you got to go you better go doing something that you really like to do mm-hmm a necessity you know no sense laying around and going what's your favorite part about mining here Ashleigh best Park today is people up here we all just want to have another one show up and from what we could tell that's what everyone was looking for [Applause] around the world things are beginning to look up for the diamond industry De Beers a mining and distribution company which controls nearly 40% of the world's diamond market has formed mutually beneficial arrangements with countries where it operates in Botswana the government receives 50% of profits earned from the mines within its borders this money has helped pay for schools hospitals and more in countries like Angola and Sierra Leone the introduction of the Kimberley process has led to a modest reduction in the flow of conflict diamonds however millions of dollars worth of uncertified stones still find their way into the market each year compared to other places around the world where the discovery of diamonds led to decades of bloodshed and destruction things have been peaceful here in Arkansas it's kind of like a family out there where you have people that that get into little quarrels and then they'll break up and then they'll reunite and it's it could be a TV series so what about you do you get out on your hands and knees and search around while you're not on duty I'm not quiet not quiet that's a lot of work when I'm not working I'm I don't think I'm gonna be out there working it's very labor intensive to be out there but some people they they just love it people come on all their vacations each year just to come here and search for diamonds not even find any and they don't even care they're just happy to be here as a business model the Crater of Diamonds State Park struck gold commercial diamond mining operations traditionally focused on using heavy machinery to extract as many diamonds from the land as quickly as possible at the state park this approach proved infeasible due to the difficult terrain today with a hundred and eighty thousand annual visitors each paying the ten dollar entry fee the park generates over 1.8 million dollars a year not accounting for any revenue from equipment rentals with the mine being depleted at a much slower rate than a typical mined Crater of Diamonds is sure to be profitable for many years to come [Music] while everyone at the park comes for the diamonds it was clear that many leave with much more than precious gems whether it be the calming process the hope of financial security or the thrill of the hunt there's something special that keeps springing people back be sure to subscribe and turn the notifications on so we can explore something new together [Music]

Channel: Off the Cuff

Views: 1,472,637

Rating: 4.8892422 out of 5

Keywords: Diamond Flawless, Diamond Mine, Crater of Diamonds, Hotels near Crater of Diamonds state park, Public Diamond Mine, Gold mine, Flawless diamond ring, Diamond rating, Diamond Hill mine, Arkansas, Murfreesboro, minecraft, mine the diamond

Id: YX93NHWfyQw

Length: 20min 48sec (1248 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 30 2020