The best kind of discoveries have been made by digging through the dirt. Julien Navas, a Parisian, will no doubt agree with the saying. He was once a gold and fossil buff and recently unearthed a diamond at a state park.
It happened at the Arkansas Crater of Diamonds State Park, and the diamond he found was a 7.46-carat diamond. “[The park] is a magical place where the dream of finding a diamond can come true! It was a real great adventure,” the Parisian said, according to Arkansas State Parks.
Navas had been touring the U.S., and after stopping to see a rocket launch in Cape Canaveral, Florida, he stopped by New Orleans. There, Navas learned about the Crater of Diamonds State Park and became curious.
“The park piqued his interest because he had previously panned for gold and searched for ammonite fossils,” officials with Arkansas State Parks wrote in a press release. “So he knew he had to visit the park while he was in the U.S.”
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Navas approached the whole affair with seriousness. On January 11, he bought a diamond hunting kit from the park and kickstarted his adventure looking for gems. “I got to the park around 9:00 and started to dig,” Navas said.
“That is back-breaking work, so by the afternoon, I was mainly looking on top of the ground for anything that stood out.” It took several hours before he decided he’d had enough, after which he brought his discoveries to the park’s Diamond Discovery Center.
There, he found out that he was carrying a brown diamond weighing 7.46 carats. “I am so happy! All I can think about is telling my fiancée what I found,” Navas told park officials. The park got a lot of rain in the days before Navas’ visit, which is one reason for the find.
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“We periodically plow the search area to loosen the diamond-bearing soil and promote natural erosion,” Assistant Park Superintendent Waymon Cox explained in a press release.
“As rain falls on the field, it washes away the dirt and uncovers heavy rocks, minerals, and diamonds near the surface.” Navas told park officials that he named the gem after his fiancée, Carine.
Rather than sell it for a profit, the family man plans to have the gem cut into two diamonds. One is for Carine, and one is for his daughter. “Navas’ diamond is deep chocolate brown and rounded like a marble.
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It is about the size of a candy gumdrop,” the Arkansas State Parks’ press release said. The Parisian no doubt will have lots to tell his wife-to-be about his adventure in the U.S., and she will love it even more because of the diamond.
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