MURFREESBORO, Ark. – A visitor to the Arkansas Crater of Diamonds State Park left with a 2.3-carat diamond to commemorate the trip.

Park officials said the unnamed visitor arrived at the park at its 8 a.m. opening time on Sept. 27 and rented a basic kit at the park’s Diamond Discovery Center. After a few hours of sifting through screens, the visitor decided to look around and began walking the diamond search area.

The visitor reportedly spotted something shiny lying on the ground.

“From far away it shined so clearly,” park officials quoted the visitor saying. “I thought it might be a piece of trash or a bug; it was so much shinier than anything else out there.”

The visitor told officials that after they picked up the shiny piece they realized it was much more than trash. They put the shiny rock in their pants pocket and walked over to the park’s mineral identification center, pulled it out of their pocket and laid it on the desk.

Officials said it was a diamond, a silver-white gem weighing 2.3 carats, about the size of a pencil eraser. Officials added that a white diamond is closest to pure carbon crystal.

Park officials said this is the second-largest diamond found in the park this year and the third diamond over two carats in 2024. To date, 548 diamonds have been harvested in the park in 2024, with a total weight of 82 carats.

An average of two diamonds are found each day, officials said. In 1924, before the park’s founding, the 40.23 Uncle Sam Diamond was found in what is now the park area and is now on display at the Smithsonian