Diamond Mine

Rows and rows of dirt, mud, puddles of water and more rocks then you will ever need. We came armed with shovels, buckets, ice chests full of sandwiches, fruit and water in the search for the most precious of gems.

Diamonds....the hardest of stones, no dirt sticks to them, they can only be scratched by another diamond and in Arkansas they come in 3 different colors...brown, yellow and white.

Knowing all of this information, seeing what an uncut diamond looks like, having all of the neccessary supplies and knowing that diamonds are found everyday,my family has found 2 on different trips, did not gaurantee that we would find one but we were going to try.

Cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and siblings made up our vast crew...
we all slipped on our rubber boots over our grungiest pants... strapped on babies, grabbed littles hands and our quest for a diamond began.

There is a sense of community among diamond hunters, the person from Kansas, the couple from Washington, the family from Iowa, all slathered in mud, sweating, and searching for the same thing you are.
Seriously the man next to us found 3 and I could not have been more excited. He was spending a month in Murfreesboro, coming 5 days a week...now that is commitment. Some people fall in love with the place ( like my mom and David), some people have lived with it all their lives, gone on numerous field trips there (like Me) and some people come from far and wide just to experience what it is like to hunt for diamonds and try out their skill in finding one.

The summer before my first year in college, I worked in the rental shed of the diamond mine and I really think it was my favorite job. I mean these people came in early in the morning and were excited to be there. There was just an energy that vibrated off them that made you excited with them and a feeling inside that wanted them to find that big diamond or at least one to go home and brag to their friends about.
I really didn't know how my kids would do out here in this vast field of dirt but unlike most trips, I was ready to leave before they were. After the search for diamonds was over, they had more fun just enjoying the pools full of muddy water, the way mud felt squished in their hands and running after each other.Even though we didn't come home with a diamond, there is a big possibility that my kids held a diamond in their hands....maybe when they were throwing dirt at each other or scooping it into their buckets to take to get sifted.
Maybe we washed a diamond away when we were cleaning off our boots in the big shower area...

There is a great chance that Jett ate a diamond because he did consume handfuls of dirt and I was only able to get part of it out of his mouth. Like all the tourist that come in year after year, my kids did not leave the diamond mine unsatisfied, they left with a lot of precious memories,
and with the excitement that maybe we will come again and go on another search for a diamond.
They worked as a team, some digging and carrying dirt, others sifting, and some looking through the sifted rocks to see if a diamond was on top.
We are checking this off our to do list for this year and hopefully adding more fun family adventures to it.

We have got some plans in the works for them.