Diamond Mining in a week!

Last year I was fortunate enough to go to New York for work, and while there, I did some Herkimer Diamond mining.

Probably the most fun I have ever had digging in the dirt!

This time around, I am headed to the Arkansas State Park to do some real Diamond mining!

Apparently this is easier than mining for Herkimers(which are quartz) because real ones don't hide in the big rocks...and can be sifted from the dirt. So no pick axe this trip!

Anyone ever do this before?

I am going to do what I did last time, and "talk" to my diamonds...ask them to show me where the other diamonds can be unearthed.

I will let you know how this pans out (pun intended!)

The Arkansas diamond mine is a huge rip off. There was a bit of a scandal a few years back when it was discovered the owners of the "mines" were salting the muddy field that they let tourists dig around in. While your in AR you can get some very nice quartz at the many, many rock shops, though.

I'm excited for you Chronata. I hope it works out for you. I'd bring all the tools just in case.
It's exciting.


Hopefully I can go Herkimer mining this summer. The energy they give off is very different than the other stones I've worked with.

Very exciting for you! All the best to you. Be sure to dowse your spots when looking.

Does Arkansas have Selenite too?

I've not dug for diamonds in Arkansas, but we did got to one of the quartz mines. We had fun and I found a huge bag of crystals for $10! I did have to clean off the mud, though.

Mellaenn said:

I've not dug for diamonds in Arkansas, but we did got to one of the quartz mines. We had fun and I found a huge bag of crystals for $10! I did have to clean off the mud, though.

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Really nice crystals are so common in AR, I think the cleaning is probably most of the price you pay. People I know who are into collecting scrub the dirt off then use muriatic acid* on the red stains.

*usually used on sidewalks, can be purchased at a hardware store

Today is the day! I will update once we are done, but I am super excited!


There was a lovely couple selling Arkansas quartz at the faire yesterday, who told us where to go to find the quartz mines on the way...we are really tempted, but I think we will have to do it on the next trip out here.


The Arkansas quartz points are really "buzzy" they have an interesting vibration. I was really drawn to them...and of course the points they had were gorgeous! They had an almost magnetic resonance to them.

I hope you find HUGE BIG CLEAR QUARTZ!!! All the best to you.

So...remember when I said we were tempted by the quartz mine?
It was a 2 mile detour on our drive south, so we decided to go for it, even though it was already late in the day, and the mone closed in an hour.

We missed the actual mine, but we paid $10 a person to go dig in the red clay field in what they call the trailings. Not huge peices...but wow, did I get my ten bucks worth of gorgeous clear crystal points!

Arkansas quartz is wonderful. I stood in the mud, and cleared my mind, and raised my vibration level...and not too long after, I could really easily hear the clearest of the crystals.

They sing.

I am not kidding!

Everytime I looked down, I could hear like a "ping"...like they were calling to me, and sure enough when my put my hand where the vibration came from...there would be an amazing clear point (or a cluster of them!)

There were tons of milky and white quartz too...(crystal points and other rocks) some of which shine in an almost opal glass way.
And quite a few points that I called "partly cloudy" which are clear with inclusions.

It was so exciting...we washed them today, just to see what we had, and we will clean them completely when we return home!

now...as for Diamond mining.....yeeeaaaaaahhhhhh...

It was so not worth it.
I could think of alot of better ways to blow $8, and get sunburned.

We had some hope, as it had rained the night before, and all the diamond hunters told us that it's the easiest way to find surface diamonds, because they often wash to the surface.

The field was muddy...and huge. We had screens and shovels to get some of the rock and mud into the screens and dunk them in the sluice to search for anything shiny. They said that dirt and mud doesn't stick to the diamonds so they are easy to spot.

If you happen to find one.

3 hours in, we had found some tiny bits of calcite and quartz...and not a whole lot else.

I tried every trick I could think of. Unike quartz, I couldn't find the vibrational frequency for diamonds, so I couldn't tune into them at all.

I tried putting my diamond ring on a string, and using it like a pendulum, but the wind would come and whip it into a frenzy of "no"

I even tried talking to the crows...since there were a lot of them nearby. I asked them to direct me to the nearest shiny...and I would inevitably find a nice piece of glass. It happened 4 times. I think crows can't really differentiate between natural shiny and man made shiny.

We gave it another hour or so, and finally admitted defeat.

So no diamonds this trip...but the quartz mines made up for that, so it turned out to be a satisfying hunt after all!

I'll have pics as soon as I clean them! ( I am going to try the acid trick that Marie-Bernard suggested above, though most of the shiny points don't need any further cleaning!)

It sounds like you had a perfect time. The Universe is singing to you! Crystal Blessings.