A trip to an Arkansas park became especially memorable for one family this summer when their son found a "massive diamond" at the park, according to CNN.
Michael Detlaff, 12, a Boy Scout, was visiting Crater of Diamond State Park in Arkansas on July 31 when he found a 5.16-carat "honey brown diamond" in an area the park calls its "diamond search area."
The park responded by saying that "It is thrilling any time a child finds a diamond here."
The park is the only diamond-producing area in the world that is also open to the public. This isn't the first instance of a visitor finding a diamond. The diamond, as large as it is, isn't even the largest diamond ever found in the park.
The park allows visitors to dig for diamond in the 37.5-acre plowed field, which began as a diamond-mining site before it became a state park in 1972. The diamond rush began when John Huddleston, the farmer who originally owned the property, found diamonds in Murfreesboro.
The policy of the park is that anyone who finds a diamond can keep it, so Michael named his "God's Glory Diamond," and took it home, with a value estimated at between $12,000 and $15,000 after being cut and polished, according to Mining.com.
"Michael had only been searching for about 10 minutes when he found his diamond," Waymon Cox, the Park Interpreter, said in a press release. "In fact, Michael's dad was renting mining equipment to begin his own diamond search when Michael showed the gem to him at the park's Diamond Discovery Center!"
The find marked the 12th diamond weighing more than a carat to be found at the park this year, and the 27th largest diamond found since the park opened.
The park contains white, brown and yellow diamonds, as well as 40 different types of rocks and minerals, as well as amethyst, peridot and garnet.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
