When we think about getting rich, most of us will not contemplate mining for diamonds on our own, after all, if we have learned something from the Gold Rush era is that it is a hard and tedious process that yields little success, but we might not be as correct in our skepticism as we think, after all, there is a man that has managed to find 400 diamonds in his lifetime.
Of course, the story is a bit more complicated than just someone stumbling into valuable rocks. The man that has managed to find the 400 diamonds is David Anderson, and he has done so over the past 16 years, which is still quite impressive considering that he did it just by strolling around a park and not down in a mine. The key here is that the park he was in is the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, one of the few diamond-bearing sites accessible to the public.
While Anderson has been doing this for a long time, he is not the only lucky individual to walk away with a small fortune in shiny rocks worth the stroll, the case that has made the news this year is that of Julien Navas. This French national was in the United States visiting some touristy sights when he stumbled upon the park and decided to try his luck.
While his trip started as a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch the launch of the United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket in Cabo Cañaveral, Florida, he decided to extend his stay and see the local sights, choosing this state park to visit, after all, who would not like to find a diamond in the rough? And find one he did.
The almost unprecedented diamond that was found in the park
For those who say you need the best equipment to find a diamond, we would like to point out that Navas had a very basic and rudimentary kit, after all, he was on vacation and not trying to become a professional. And yet, he still managed to find as he was excavating one area of the park a rare brown diamond shaped in a circle with a 7,46 karat weight.
While it is not unusual for visitors and pros to find diamonds in this park, most of them are not as big or as valuable as the one Navas found and they are usually a nice souvenir from the trip, not big or valuable enough to potentially make the finder a millionaire.
When relating his experience, Navas stated “I got to the park around nine o’clock and started to dig. That is back-breaking work so by the afternoon I was mainly looking on top of the ground for anything that stood out.”
But his hard work paid off, thanks to some rains that loosened up the soil on the days prior to his visit, he was able to make surface this impressive rock. Once he was told the type and rarity o the diamond that he found, Navas was ecstatic gushing about the experience “I am so happy! All I can think about is telling my fiancée what I found.” Navas said of his visit to Crater of Diamonds State Park, “it is a magical place, where the dream of finding a diamond can come true! It was a real great adventure.”
For reference, Navas’s diamond is a deep chocolate brown and has a smooth, rounded shape, resembling a marble and it is about the size of a candy gumdrop. He hopes to have the stone cut into two diamonds, one for his fiancée and one for his daughter. Navas also plans to return to the park with his daughter when she is older, making the experience even more meaningful for their family.