Jack Pearadin shoveled a six-carat diamond from a field in Arkansas earlier this year, and now he says collectors have told him it could be worth more than $1 million. The rough yellow stone, weighing 6.03 carats, is the largest diamond found this year at Crater of Diamonds State Park, and Pearadin has given it a name befitting its potential payday: the American Dream.
According to wgauradio.com, Pearadin has been trying his luck at the Murfreesboro park since 2013 and has found over 300 gems so far. Collectors have told him the diamond could be worth more than $1 million.
A Stone With More Than 48 Faces
The rough yellow diamond has 48 natural faces. Collectors have discussed the American Dream's potential worth, even without a certified grade attached to it yet.
Crater of Diamonds State Park charges a $15 entry fee that lets visitors fill a five-gallon bucket with rocks, and anyone who finds a gemstone gets to keep it, the outlet's report notes. That finders-keepers policy is part of what has made the park a magnet for hobbyists and the occasional jaw-dropping find for nearly a century.
How the Find Stacks Up Historically
Most of the 400 to 800 diamonds found at the park each year weigh about a quarter of a carat, making Pearadin's discovery a true outlier by the park's own numbers. The park's all-time tally of discoveries is murky: the same wgauradio.com report says more than 37,000 diamonds have been found since the site became a state park in 1972, while abc7news.com has put the figure at more than 75,000 diamonds since that same 1972 opening.
Big stones have surfaced there before. In 2020, an Arkansas bank manager found a 9-carat diamond at the park, and a French visitor turned up a 7.46-carat stone on Jan. 11, 2024, abc7news.com reported at the time. Decades earlier, the 40.23-carat rough crystal that became the famous Uncle Sam Diamond was pulled from the same ground in 1924, according to a release from si.edu, which calls it the largest faceted diamond ever discovered in the Arkansas mine.
What Collectors Say a Stone Like This Could Fetch
An experienced appraiser has estimated that a high-quality six-carat yellow diamond from the park could be worth about $250,000, according to wgauradio.com's reporting — a possible value, not a verified sale price. The same report notes that a typical 0.17-carat diamond pulled from the park's gravel can sell for around $700, a reminder of how rare a stone the size of the American Dream actually is.
Natural diamonds also lose about 25% of their weight once they are cut and polished, so whatever the American Dream eventually becomes on a jeweler's scale will almost certainly be smaller than its current 6.03 carats. The United States has only two known primary diamond deposits — Crater of Diamonds in Arkansas and Kelsey Lake in Colorado — which helps explain why finds like this one draw national attention whenever they turn up.
