Arkansas Man Finds 4.87-Carat Diamond at Crater of Diamonds

A Lepanto man recently realized he’d found a 4.87-carat diamond from an earlier trip to the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, according to a release from the park.

Jerry Evans visited the park for the first time ever this spring, and within 10 minutes of entering, he picked up some glass that he saw a few feet away on top of a plowed ridge. He put it in his pocket along with some other things he found throughout his day and went home. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t glass.

“I thought it might be a piece of glass, it was so clear. I really didn’t know,” Evans said. “We were picking up everything thinking it was a diamond.”

It wasn’t until later that he would send the stone to the Gemological Institute of America to identify it. They called him and told him it was a near-colorless diamond.

“When they called and told me it was real, I was tickled to death,” Evans said. He called the park and notified them after once he knew what it was.

Evans’ diamond is the largest registered find from the park since Kevin Kinard of Maumelle found a 9.07-carat brown diamond in 2020. He has named it the “Evans Diamond.”