Dewy White of Paoli, Indiana, visited Crater of Diamonds State Park on October 2 and found a beautiful 2.71-carat white diamond.

White and his wife embarked on the road trip of a lifetime with Crater of Diamonds State Park as their first stop. The couple spent two days digging and sifting in the park's 37.5-acre search area before moving on to their next destination. Having created a lasting memory, the couple revisited the park on their return trip for three more days.

With some screens he had bought on his way into Murfreesboro, White started digging in the Canary Hill area by the south wash pavilion. “A very nice gentleman I met on my first day out here suggested that area,” noted White. “He seemed like he knew what he was doing, and it looked like a nice, shaded spot.”

White spent most of the day dry sifting, a process where dirt is broken up by hand and sifted through mesh screens without water. Getting excited at every piece of quartz and calcite he found, White finally spotted something that looked different than everything he had seen.

Before the rock even hit his screen, White spotted the glimmering gem in his shovel and immediately knew he had found something special. Saying “thank you, Jesus!” he hopped up and wasted no time bringing the gem directly to the park’s rock and mineral identification table.

While park staff verified his diamond, White called his wife and told her about what he had found. White described his diamond like nothing he had seen before. “It looked like a metal piece of glass,” he said. “The minute I saw it in my shovel, I knew.” His 2.71-carat white diamond is round and about the size of a pea.

Many visitors choose to name the diamonds they find at Crater of Diamonds State Park. White chose to name his diamond the Hope Diamond, simply because he had hoped they would find one.

Before leaving, White expressed his gratitude to the kind people he had met in the search area, saying he wishes to thank the person who showed him where to go.

White’s Hope Diamond is the fourth-largest diamond registered this year. As of this publication, 414 diamonds have been registered at Crater of Diamonds State Park this year.

Quick Facts about Crater of Diamonds State Park

Diamonds come in all colors of the rainbow. The three most common colors found at Crater of Diamonds State Park are white, brown and yellow, in that order.

In total, over 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed at the Crater of Diamonds since the first diamonds were discovered in 1906 by John Huddleston, a farmer who owned the land long before it became an Arkansas State Park in 1972.

The largest diamond ever discovered in the United States was unearthed in 1924 during an early mining operation on the land that later became Crater of Diamonds State Park. Named the Uncle Sam, this white diamond with a pink cast weighed 40.23 carats. It was later cut into a 12.42-carat emerald shape. The Uncle Sam is now part of the Smithsonian’s mineral and gem collection and can be seen at the National Museum of Natural History.

Another well-known diamond from the park is the Strawn-Wagner. Found in 1990 by Murfreesboro resident Shirley Strawn, this 3.03-carat white gem was cut into a round brilliant shape weighing 1.09 carats. It graded as ideal cut, D-colorless and flawless and was set in a platinum and 24-carat gold ring. In 1998, the state of Arkansas purchased this diamond for $34,700 in donations and placed it on permanent display at the park visitor center.