[Just to be "legal", this ain't my video. Nor is the next one tomorrow. I will tell you if a video is mine, otherwise, it was done by someone else.]
The Crater of Diamonds near Murfreesboro, Arkansas has been a periodic rockhounding stop since our 1973 family vacation. I got lucky and found a 37-point clear diamond on the surface. From memory, I think my subsequent visits were 1978, 1984, and early 2015. (If it wasn't 600+ miles away, I would have gone more often.)
Though I didn't find any more diamonds (and my 37-point diamond was lost about 2011 during home-renovations because I didn't label the container properly) on my 1978 visit I was able to hold and identify a 4-carat brown diamond found by a Dallas, TX couple.
Not having anything else to do during 1978 Spring Break, I decided to journey from El Paso to Arkansas for some rockhounding and beer can "dumping" (searching old dumps for displayable cans). One of my neighbors tagged along with me. A four-person tent and my Jeep truck with a camper shell served as our lodging.
Aside from picking up some Conglomerate specimens from the Crater (Figure 1), the day's searching was fruitless. However, while at one of the screening troughs, we had a pleasant conversation with a couple from Dallas, Texas. After several hours, we decided to leave the park and go into town and get a bite to eat.
Though I didn't find any more diamonds (and my 37-point diamond was lost about 2011 during home-renovations because I didn't label the container properly) on my 1978 visit I was able to hold and identify a 4-carat brown diamond found by a Dallas, TX couple.
Not having anything else to do during 1978 Spring Break, I decided to journey from El Paso to Arkansas for some rockhounding and beer can "dumping" (searching old dumps for displayable cans). One of my neighbors tagged along with me. A four-person tent and my Jeep truck with a camper shell served as our lodging.
Aside from picking up some Conglomerate specimens from the Crater (Figure 1), the day's searching was fruitless. However, while at one of the screening troughs, we had a pleasant conversation with a couple from Dallas, Texas. After several hours, we decided to leave the park and go into town and get a bite to eat.
Figure 1. (Labeled for Educational use.)
After lunch, we decided to do some exploring, primarily to look for old beer cans near road pull-offs. Later in the day, while emerging from the woods closer to town, the couple from Dallas drove by and they recognized me. They turned around and stopped to chat. They told me that as the park office had closed for the day, they needed me to take a look at something they found, as they weren't sure about it.
That "something" was a fair-sized brown diamond. As soon as they put it in my hand, I knew it was a diamond and I immediately told them. I also told them to go by the park office the next morning and get it certified.
(By chance, a couple of weeks later, back in El Paso, I picked up a copy of a Dallas newspaper and within was a short article about an unnamed Dallas couple that had found a 4-carat brown diamond at The Crater of Diamonds State Park. I think it was valued at $4,000.)
As we went our separate ways in the late afternoon, I was glad that I got to hold a 4-carat rough diamond and give them the happy news. Even 42 years later, that was the "high point" of the trip.
During the next couple of days, we visited some other mineral localities and found a few old, displayable "flat-top" beer cans (pre-pull tab cans) here and there. From a description in "Gems and Minerals" magazine, I found a Wavellite locality and picked up a few specimens.
Later that day, we paid the fees to visit a mountain-top Quartz crystal mine in Mount Ida, Arkansas and we wound up spending the night on top of the mountain. With the sunset highlighting the Ozark Mountains ridges and valleys below us, followed by a full moon, that mountain-top camping was quite a memorable experience, too.
That "something" was a fair-sized brown diamond. As soon as they put it in my hand, I knew it was a diamond and I immediately told them. I also told them to go by the park office the next morning and get it certified.
(By chance, a couple of weeks later, back in El Paso, I picked up a copy of a Dallas newspaper and within was a short article about an unnamed Dallas couple that had found a 4-carat brown diamond at The Crater of Diamonds State Park. I think it was valued at $4,000.)
As we went our separate ways in the late afternoon, I was glad that I got to hold a 4-carat rough diamond and give them the happy news. Even 42 years later, that was the "high point" of the trip.
During the next couple of days, we visited some other mineral localities and found a few old, displayable "flat-top" beer cans (pre-pull tab cans) here and there. From a description in "Gems and Minerals" magazine, I found a Wavellite locality and picked up a few specimens.
Later that day, we paid the fees to visit a mountain-top Quartz crystal mine in Mount Ida, Arkansas and we wound up spending the night on top of the mountain. With the sunset highlighting the Ozark Mountains ridges and valleys below us, followed by a full moon, that mountain-top camping was quite a memorable experience, too.
.
The next day, we found a rock shop in "downtown" Mount Ida. As we didn't have time to visit and collect at Magnet Cove, AR, I had to settle for a few small Brookite crystal specimens. (After collecting Rutile at Graves Mountain, GA, I was partial to titanium minerals.)
All-in-all, it was a pretty good trip. On the first day, on I-30 in very rural northeast Texas, it was legal in 1978 to sip a beer, as long as you weren't intoxicated. As beer is something you only "borrow", we took an exit, but there were no gas stations present.
As the "bathroom" situation was approaching "critical", we just drove around and found a deserted dirt road and drove a little way to verify that it truly was deserted (it was mid-afternoon). As we stood there, relieving ourselves on the dirt road, I glanced around a bit and saw a folded-up $20 bill just laying there. The way dirt had been splashed on it, it had been there through at least one rainstorm. Beer money!
The only "downside" was that one year later, my neighbor - the dirty dog - stole my girlfriend away from me. That was the end of that friendship. (If I had known he was going to do that to me, I would have just left him up on that damn mountain.)
As the "bathroom" situation was approaching "critical", we just drove around and found a deserted dirt road and drove a little way to verify that it truly was deserted (it was mid-afternoon). As we stood there, relieving ourselves on the dirt road, I glanced around a bit and saw a folded-up $20 bill just laying there. The way dirt had been splashed on it, it had been there through at least one rainstorm. Beer money!
The only "downside" was that one year later, my neighbor - the dirty dog - stole my girlfriend away from me. That was the end of that friendship. (If I had known he was going to do that to me, I would have just left him up on that damn mountain.)
No comments:
Post a Comment