An Arkansas man who picked up what he thought was a small piece of glass at an Arkansas state park was shocked to later find out it was actually a diamond. A big diamond.
Lepanto resident Jerry Evans was visiting Crater of Diamonds State Park, picking up everything that even resembled a diamond, when he found the shiny object, he says. “I thought it might be a piece of glass, it was so clear,” Evans says. “I really didn’t know.” But just to be safe, he sent it to the Gemological Institute of America for an evaluation – and it turned out the “glass” was actually a 4.87-carat, nearly colorless diamond. Its value: Somewhere between $117,000 and $290,000. “When they called and told me it was real, I was tickled to death,” Evans says.
It turns out the diamond is also the largest found at the park since 2020, when a man found a 9.07-carat brown diamond, according to Crater of Diamonds officials.