When David DeCook of Stewartville, Minn., picked up what he thought was a candy wrapper, he got more than he bargained for. An avid rock collector, DeCook was at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Ark., when about an hour into his visit he spotted something glimmering on the ground. Thinking it was just a discarded candy wrapper, he was stunned to find that it was actually a 3.81 carat brown diamond worth thousands. It’s also the heftiest diamond registered with the park so far this year. Assistant Park Superintendent Waymon Cox explained that finding the precious crystal wasn’t a matter of sheer luck. “April has been a very wet month at the park, with more than 12 inches of rain. As rain falls in the search area, it washes away the dirt and uncovers heavy rocks, minerals and diamonds near the surface,” said Cox. Commemorating his successful search, DeCook named his copper-colored cluster “The Duke Diamond” after his dog. The same amount of white diamonds could fetch somewhere in the neighborhood of $40,000, while brown diamonds in the same carat typically bring in about $10,000. Based on these numbers, The Duke Diamond could be worth anywhere from $3,810 to $19,050.
