A Quartz in the Rough

[gurdonark]

One of Arkansas' claims to fame is the Crater of Diamonds State Park, just outside Murfreesboro, in south Arkansas. It's down the road a piece from Washington, population less than 100, the town which was the home of the "Bowie knife", and not far at all from Bill's Town, just outside Delight, birthplace of Glen Campbell.

In this unprepossessing bit of south Arkansas woodland, there is a plowed field, which happens to be located right on an old, extinct volcanic cone. The volcano is discernible, but nearly entirely flat, so that one might as well be on some farm property. But it isn't farm property. It's a diamond mine.

Diamonds have always been found in this country, usually "alluvial" ones that are found in river sediment. But until the Crater of Diamonds was located, nobody had found a genuine North American "diamond pipe". When a lucky farmer realized that he was sitting, literally, on top of a diamond mine, the frabjous day, callooh, callay enthusiasm led to mining companies, high hopes and a world of hopeful folks. In fact, though, no commercial diamond mining operation on the site has ever really paid. The park has instead spent most of its time as a state park, open to the public, where one goes and pays a few dollars and combs a plowed field for diamonds.

I have the good fortune to have had one of those "hobby dads". My father always had one to three hobbies going at any given time. History, building a Model T from near scratch, drilling water wells--you name it. He always approaches his hobbies with a gusto that I envy and admire. When he took up rockhounding, he didn't just collect tiger eye agates and such--he became a certified gemologist.
What's more, my family began its dozens of pilgrimages to the Crater of Diamonds State Park.

The park was really cool when I was a kid. A park official in a little building that doubled as a gift shop sorted through the rocks one found, to tell you if you found a diamond. The diamond pipe was filled with lots of crystals--cheap, chunky calcite, nice quartz and amethyst, and a world of similar non-diamondy things.
I never found a diamond, though I once did find a charming peridot.
But what matters is that my father found a diamond his first time out, and from then on, he was hooked. His being hooked meant, in essence, we were all hooked, as if we were on a diamond-baited trotline.

There's some sublime, if subliminal, pleasure in spending an entire Sunday afternoon walking a plowed field staring at various semi-precious stones, hoping to find a precious stone. It's a bit like dating, except there's far less rejection. One dreams great dreams while picking up calcite and watching for the glint of a diamond.

My father's first diamond was the first of only two total he found. He never became one of those locals who finds a diamond every time.
The first one was a little canary yellow one, barely gem quality.
The second was darkish, only good for industrial use. He put them both in pill bottles, and did not use them or set them at all. I no longer have any stone I found at the park. My father's current hobby is the Ouachita River.

But I have a rich treasure trove of memories still--little hole in the wall rock shops where massive geodes cost nearly nothing. The thrill of emptying a tiny paper sack of crystal into the sorting tray, praying that some of the quartz was really diamond. Watching determined people use a pump and sluice to try to "pan" for diamonds. Feeling the sweat on one's brow in humid summer weather, realizing that one has spent an entire Sunday afternoon staring at a plowed field, hunting in vain for a diamond.

Other diamond mines have been discovered on this continent since, and more will be discovered, if reason is any guide. I tend to prefer the emeralds, rubies, and even garnets to diamonds these days. I remember just enough about rocks to make it through an afternoon at the Tuscon rock show pretending I know what I am talking about. I even tried to stop at Rockhounders' State Park in New Mexico when I drove from Los Angeles to Dallas during our 2000 move, but I found that geode-hunting is pretty futile when two lhasas are on the leash in 100 degree weather. I have not been to the Crater of Diamonds State Park in some twenty years. But I'll always have a fondness inside for this curious place in which most of what glittered was not diamond (did I mention the amazing "fool's gold" deposits?), but where everything somehow turned up gem-like for me.

Comments

that gem-like quality...

[nacowafer.livejournal.com]

I would love to find a peridot. It's our (mine and yours) birthstone...so that must have been neat for you. I remember feeling slightly gypped upon discovering that my birthstone was something called a peridot, when other people's birthstones were diamonds and rubies (my mother and father's) or even pearls. But it really is a lovely little stone. My grandmother had a beautiful peridot ring made for her (it was her birthstone, too) and I inherited it when she died. I need to wear that more often. I feel more like a semi-precious sort, anyway, more like a complex silicate of magnesium and iron used especially in refractories.

Re: that gem-like quality...

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I loved finding that peridot. As I remember, there was some debate about whether one of the farmers "seeded" in a bit of semi-precious stone not native to the region, as peridot, while volcanic, apparently was less common in this type of place. It was a very cute little stone, maybe the size of a huge teardrop, just as green and lovely as a peridot should be. I can't imagine anything nicer to inherit from a grandmother than a peridot ring--what a gorgeous thing to wear for a "nice" evening out. I'm definitely semi-precious. I got a rock grinder some years ago, one of those odd things that ran in the garage for weeks when one was a kid, but I never fired it up. Besides the diamond mine, Arkansas had a lot of cool rock places. In the Ouachita Mountains, about an hour from where I grew up, quartz and amethyst veins ran near the surface. These crystals have kinds of "lodes", so that once one has "found a vein", then all sorts of quartz can be found. They used to call quartz "Hot Springs Diamonds", which is appropriate,because the odd little resort of Hot Springs had a sort of glitter that was not quite diamond.

I see that in Virginia, you can find cool crystals at the place mentioned in this website (http://members.aol.com/clydeinpa/Page2.html), although the takings are quartz and beryl rather than peridot.

I only live four hours from the diamond mine now, and I'm sure I live closer to other cool rock things. We have a few fossils in the limestone in my county. Just thinking about those times on that plowed field makes me want to go rockhound, somehow, though I was never really any good at it.

You're a gem. Thanks for commenting.

always looking for fieldtrips

[sortofkindof.livejournal.com]

Aha! You're always finding some interesting tidbits of info about places even around here. I might have to steal your suggestion to nacowafer and go to the place mentioned in that website.

Re: always looking for fieldtrips

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Imagine making art with amethyst! I'd be at that mine tomorrow, if I lived in Richmond. As it was, I sent an e mail off to a local geology expert, asking if any similar pay sites exist here. I know that fossils are pretty prevalent here, but I like the "pay sites" because then I pay a fixed fee and don't have to worry about the landowner permission. Also, I have limited mineral identification skills, and places like that help me sort rock from stone.

Maybe it's also a Super 8 documentary waiting to be made :).

[mesawyou.livejournal.com]

This post reminds me of the fact that even though I've lived in Arkansas most of my life, I have never been there.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

It's worth a visit, if you haven't been. Also, between Hot Springs and Mt. Ida, the Coleman Quartz crystal mine is wonderful. Also, Magnet Cove is fun, where all the natural magnetite makes compasses go wonky. I don't think any of those places are very far from where you are :).