As the patient few soon discover, Arkansas diamonds
can be an explorer's best friend. For those who can't afford
million-dollar diamonds from Cartier's, there's a little-known
place in Arkansas, where, for a small fee, poor folks like my
husband Dan and me can dig for diamonds to our heart's
content. Crater of Diamonds State Park, just south of Hot
Springs, is the only productive diamond deposit in the U.S.
You wouldn't think it, though, to look at it. From the Visitor's
Center, it seems like any other farmer's field, just before the
crops have sprouted. Large open fields of dirt, 35 acres plowed
into neat little rows - seemingly no place for a sparkling
diamond, but that's the reason we'd come.
