In southwest Arkansas, the state government runs what might be the world's most unusual diamond mine. For the price of a movie ticket, anyone can dig for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park—and keep whatever they find.
The 37-acre search field near Murfreesboro sits atop an ancient volcanic pipe that erupted roughly 100 million years ago. That eruption brought diamonds that formed deep within the Earth's mantle to the surface, where they now wait in the soil for anyone with a garden trowel and patience.
The Crater of Diamonds site hosted multiple commercial mining attempts between 1906 (when John Wesley Huddleston found the first diamonds) and the park's opening in 1972. Several companies tried to make the operation profitable but failed due to the relatively low concentration of diamonds compared to commercial mines elsewhere.
