12-Year-Old Discovers 5-Carat Diamond at Crater of Diamonds in Arkansas

[cbdo2007]

12-Year-Old Discovers 5-Carat Diamond

By ABC News | ABC News Blogs – 2 hours 2 minutes ago

Michael Dettlaff of North Carolina says the diamond he found atop a patch at Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds State Park "didn't look like anything else around it."

That description is an understatement, considering that the diamond the 12-year-old found is 5.16 carats, the 27th largest diamond a park visitor has found since Arkansas' diamond site became a state park in 1972, according to The Associated Press.

"What they tell you you're going to find is these little diamonds [that are] so small," Michael said. "I kind of expected to maybe get a couple of those. "We were probably there about 10 minutes and I was looking around on the ground and found it on top," he said. "It was very glassy. Very smooth."

...

Michael's rock, according to appraisers, could be worth as much as $15,000 after it is cleaned and shaped.

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/12-old-michael-dettlaff-discovers-5-carat-diamond-141250426.html?vp=1

[jberryhill]

1. Visitors are allowed to remove them from the park?

[cbdo2007]

2. Yes, that's the point of the park....

really it's just a field that they plow regularly, but you pay $10 or something and can keep anything you find.

[LeftofObama]

3. Yes.

That's what people go there for. You pay a fee to go in and hunt for diamonds and you get to keep what you find. They even have an informal class before you go out looking to tell you what to look for.

[Shrike47]

4. Yep, you get to keep what you find, if anything.

[Recursion]

6. Yeah, it's pretty fun for kids, at least

You get to root around in the mud and keep any cool rocks you find.

[Recursion]

5. I went there once. Found a bunch of rocks.

They were pretty. And worthless.

[Nevernose]

7. I must have taken 50 school field trips there

I found a fifty cent piece once, but that was about it!