A Minnesota man came upon something incredible while visiting Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas on April 21.
David DeCook regularly visits the park with his family and has registered numerous diamonds they found there, Arkansas State Parks said in a press release.
When DeCook went down a hill south of the park’s south wash pavilion, he noticed something that looked like a candy wrapper. However, it was something else entirely.
“Kind of looks like a candy wrapper, real shiny looking, kind of like a Werther’s candy wrapper kind of. As you get closer to it, you can tell it’s a diamond pretty quick,” he recalled, per Fox 9.
He picked it up then called to his brother who was nearby, shouting, “Oh, you’re going to be mad once you see what I found!”
When DeCook later showed park staff what he had found, they registered it as a 3.81-carat brown diamond, the biggest one discovered so far in 2025.
An image shows DeCook holding his sparkling treasure:
One amateur diamond hunter from Minnesota says his hobby is paying off in big ways after he found a 3.81-carat brown diamond on the ground at Crater of Diamonds State Park early last week. https://t.co/Q78ix4adZT
— FOX 13 Tampa Bay (@FOX13News) May 5, 2025
DeCook said he was surprised to find the diamond and never thought he would come across one quite that large. “You just never know what you’re gonna find. It’s a chance of a lifetime,” he said, adding it would probably never happen again for him but maybe for the next person.
In January 2024, a man from Paris, France, visited the park and found a 7.46-carat diamond, per Breitbart News.
Julien Navas said, “It is a magical place where the dream of finding a diamond can come true! It was a real great adventure.”
In 2013, a 14-year-old named Tana Clymer from Oklahoma visited the park and discovered a 3.8-carat canary diamond, UPI reported at the time.
“I kept asking my dad if I was dreaming. I cried. I couldn’t believe it,” she said of her discovery.
