A man visiting an Arkansas state park unearthed a 3.29 carat diamond while sifting through the dirt, officials recently announced.
David Anderson was a frequent visitor to the Crater of the Diamonds State Park, when, on March 4, his trip broke records. Anderson, from Murfreesboro, Arkansas, was sifting through soil in the West Drain area when he discovered the largest diamond found in the park since September 2021, officials said.
And he didn’t initially believe it was a diamond, he said.
“At first I thought it was quartz but wondered why it was so shiny,” Anderson said, according to a parks department press release. “Once I picked it up, I realized it was a diamond!”
Weighing in at 3.29 carats, the brown diamond was the biggest of the over 400 gems Anderson had unearthed since he started sifting through the park’s grounds in 2007. Of the 400-plus diamond collection, 15 weighed over a carat, the agency said.
Anderson named the gem “B.U.D.” an acronym for “Big, Ugly Diamond,” he said. He added that he plans to sell the jewel.
His was the largest diamond found in the park since September 2021, when a man visiting from Granite Bay, California dug up a 4.38 carat yellow diamond.
