MURFREESBORO, Ark. — On Thursday, January 11, Julien Navas, of Paris, France, discovered a 7.46-carat diamond during his first-ever visit to Arkansas’s Crater of Diamonds State Park.
Navas was visiting the U.S. to see the United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur Rocket launch in Cape Canaveral, Florida. After the launch, he traveled to New Orleans with a friend, and along the way, he heard about Arkansas’s world-famous state park in Murfreesboro.
It was a wet and muddy day when Navas arrived in Arkansas and got to work in the park's search area.
“I got to the park around nine o’clock and started to dig,” he said. “That is back-breaking work so by the afternoon I was mainly looking on top of the ground for anything that stood out."
After several hours of searching, Navas brought his finds to the park’s Diamond Discovery Center, where he learned that he had discovered a brown diamond weighing 7.46 carats— he was stunned at the news.
“I am so happy! All I can think about is telling my fiancée what I found," Navas said.
According to Navas, he located the diamond on the surface of the park’s 37.5-acre search area. The diamond is deep chocolate brown in color and rounded like a marble. It is about the size of a candy gumdrop.
It's not uncommon to find diamonds on the surface in the park.
“We periodically plow the search area to loosen the diamond-bearing soil and promote natural erosion,” said Assistant Park Superintendent Waymon Cox. “As rain falls on the field, it washes away the dirt and uncovers heavy rocks, minerals, and diamonds near the surface.”
“It is always so exciting to see first-time visitors find diamonds, especially large diamonds like this one!” added Park Interpreter Sarah Reap.
Many visitors choose to name the diamonds they find at Crater of Diamonds State Park, and Navas decided to name his find the Carine Diamond, after his fiancée. He hopes to have the stone cut into two diamonds to give to his fiancée and daughter.
“It is a magical place, where the dream of finding a diamond can come true! It was a real great adventure," Navas said, adding that he plans to return to the park with his daughter when she is older.
The Carine Diamond is the fifth diamond registered at Crater of Diamonds State Park in 2024. It is the largest diamond registered at the park since 2020 and is the eighth-largest diamond registered since the Crater of Diamonds became an Arkansas State Park in 1972.
An average of one to two diamonds are found by park visitors each day. In total, over 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed at Crater of Diamonds State Park since the first diamonds were discovered long before it became a state park.
