It might be time to plan a vacation to Arkansas.
The Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, to be specific. That’s where California resident Noreen Wredberg and her husband, Michael, were strolling along when they looked down and saw a sparkling little object that was eventually revealed to be a 4.38 carat diamond!
"I didn't know it was a diamond then, but it was clean and shiny, so I picked it up," Noreen said. "We really didn't think we would find one, let alone something that big!"
As People reported, the couple brought the little bauble to the park's Diamond Discovery Center where it was authenticated.
"When I first saw this diamond under the microscope I thought, 'Wow, what a beautiful shape and color!'" Park Superintendent Caleb Howell said.
"Mrs. Wredberg's diamond weighs more than four carats and is about the size of a jellybean, with a pear shape and a lemonade yellow color," he added.
The discovery marks the largest diamond to be found at the park this year. It's also the biggest since a 4.49-carat canary yellow diamond was discovered by Fayetteville resident Steven McCool last October.
Kevin Kinard, of Maumelle, also used the method to find a 9.07-carat diamond at the park in September, 2020, which was the second-largest gem ever found since it became a state park in 1972.
According to the Arkansas State Parks press release, visitors at Crater of Diamonds State Park have found a total of 258 diamonds in 2021, weighing more than 46 carats in total. On average, one to two diamonds are found by park visitors each day.
The Wredbergs, from Granite Bay, CA, were already vacationing in Hot Springs National Park when Noreen remembered seeing something about the Crater of Diamonds park on a TV show and thought it’d be nice to go see it without knowing they’d become modern day gold rushers.
Part of the retired couple’s luck was due to good weather timing.
"Many visitors surface search for diamonds after a good rain. More than one inch of rain fell at the park between September 19 and 21," Park Interpreter WaymonCox explained in the release. "The soil had dried a little, and the sun was out when Mrs. Wredberg visited two days later. She was in just the right place to see her diamond sparkle in the morning sunlight!"
Noreen named the fancy rock “Lucy’s Diamond” after her husband's cat.
"Lucy is mostly gray, but has slight tints of yellow in her fur, similar to the light yellow of my diamond," she explained. "I don't even know what it's worth yet. It's all new to me!"
Maybe the Wredbergs should try Botswana for their next vacation.
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