Chapter 134: Diamond Park
Chapter 134: Diamond Park
“Young man.”
The gas station owner, dressed in a denim outfit with a long beard, admired, “That’s quite a car you’ve got.”
His gaze swept past Ji Yu picking snacks by the shelves, winking at Gao Jing with a knowing grin only men shared. “And your gal is even better. She’s a real catch.”
Gao Jing just chuckled.
The over one-thousand-mile journey from New York City to Arkansas would take nearly two days by car.
But Gao Jing travelled unhurriedly with his senior schoolmate.
They savored the views along the road, occasionally stopping overnight in a picturesque town.
Five days had passed since they left New York City.
They still hadn’t reached their destination.
But that’s the charm of a road trip, and Gao Jing rarely felt so relaxed.
Ji Yu walked over with her chosen snacks.
The owner scanned each item at the register and asked, “Where are you two headed?”
He wasn’t usually this nosy, but it was rare to see Asians in his store.
So he made small talk.
Gao Jing replied, “Little Rock.”
“Little Rock?”
The owner gave a dismissive look. “What’s fun there?”
Though he was from Arkansas,
he held little fondness for his own state capital.
Actually, Arkansas, in the South, barely registered nationally.
With just over two million people across 50,000 square miles,
it had little worthy of praise beyond decent scenery and natural resources.
Gao Jing smiled. “We’re going diamond digging.”
“Huh?”
The owner froze.
Then burst into a loud laugh. “Young man, I know where you mean now.”
“But trust me, that place got picked clean long ago. You’ll be disappointed!”
Gao Jing nodded. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
After paying for gas and snacks, Gao Jing and Ji Yu left the roadside gas station.
Watching them go, the owner shook his head helplessly.
Tourists, falling for tales once more.
The BMW station wagon, refuelled, hit the road again.
Sitting shotgun, Ji Yu couldn’t help asking, “We really are going to dig for diamonds?”
She’d known their destination and was intrigued.
But that local owner’s words sounded genuinely kind.
Gao Jing grinned. “Of course. Tickets are cheap. It’s all for fun.”
Ji Yu thought it over, then nodded. “Mm-hmm.”
Following the highway for another half-hour, they entered the Little Rock city limits.
Ji Yu felt let down. “This is Little Rock?”
Even as a state capital and its biggest city,
urban-scene-wise, it paled next to Chinese county-level towns.
No towering skyscrapers, just buildings frozen last century.
The streets weren’t crowded either.
They checked into their pre-booked hotel upon arrival.
Next morning, Gao Jing took Ji Yu to the Crater of Diamonds State Park in southwestern Arkansas!
This is Earth’s sole public diamond mine. Buy a ticket, enter freely, keep every gem you dig—no extra fees!
Finding a diamond? Park experts ID it free.
And no taxes!
Since opening in 1972, over 29,000 diamonds emerged here—one or two found daily on average.
Over 700 weighed over one carat!
North America’s biggest diamond surfaced here: a 40-carat record.
In 1990, a lucky digger unearthed a 3.03-carat stone shipped to New York City for processing.
Later, appraisers graded it D/IF—perfect color, flawless.
A one-in-a-billion find!
Remarkably, former First Lady’s favorite diamond, “The Con Canary,” also came from this park.
She wore its brilliance at her husband’s two inaugurations.
Grinning, Gao Jing asked Ji Yu, “Fancy digging up one yourself?”
Her heart raced, though she stayed grounded. “Who gets that insanely lucky?”
Gao Jing winked. “Chances are low…”
But never zero!
Little Rock lay just an hour from Crater of Diamonds.
Passing woods, meadows, and ponds, they found dark brown earth spread before them.
Freshly plowed, neatly furrowed.
Gao Jing parked, bought two tickets.
Entry cost $6, half-price for kids.
$12 total seemed a steal.
This world-famous park sprawled just 15 hectares.
More woodland-fringed farm plot than grand park.
Its secret? An ancient volcanic pipe below ground.
Some 95 million years ago, eruptions spewed diamonds near the top.
So gems lie ripe for plucking.
Inside, other treasure hunters already dug.
They needed tools, of course.
Park rules forbid machinery—only hand tools allowed.
They could only rent the tools provided there.
Gao Jing rented a set of equipment at the visitor center, including shovels, plastic buckets, gloves, sieves, and so on.
Next, they could start working.
The method of digging for diamonds was actually very simple—just use a shovel to fill plastic buckets with soil from the ground, then take it to the nearby water tank for sieving and washing, and finally pick out gemstones from the gravel.
If they were lucky enough.
Besides diamonds, there were also semi-precious gem resources like peridot, garnet, amethyst, and agate.
Tourists who knew nothing at all, the Little White tourists, could compare and choose using photos put up in the park for reference.
There were also professional appraisers to help with identification.
“Let’s divide the work and cooperate.”
Gao Jing suggested, “I’ll dig the soil, and you sieve and wash.”
The weather that day was very good, with a clear sky and bright sun shining, so he naturally did the heavy and tiring job.
Ji Yu was eager: “Alright.”
Gao Jing chose a spot not far from the sieving and washing water tank.
He started setting to work as a digger.
The soil here was very hard, and park workers had dug neat furrows using an excavator.
Digging soil was without a doubt hard work.
But for Gao Jing, it was nothing at all.
He first dug through the top layer of mud, making a dirt pit about one meter across.
Then he scooped out half a bucket of soil from it.
He carried it over for Ji Yu to work with.
Ji Yu had already put on plastic gloves.
On both sides of her, people were seriously sieving and washing soil in the water tank.
Including a few guys who looked very professional at a glance.
After watching there for a little while, anyone could understand the basic steps.
“WOW!”
Gao Jing had just placed the dug soil onto the wooden grate of the sieve.
A redneck cowboy man very close to him suddenly let out an excited cheer.
People nearby all gathered to see the fun.
This lucky cowboy had just found a raw stone a bit bigger than a grain of rice.
It was worth about two to three hundred US Dollars.
He was also the first treasure digger that day to get something.
It was said that some people had dug here for years or even decades, making a living off the gemstones they found.
These people were called gem hunters.
Everyone congratulated the cowboy man and cheered each other on, making the atmosphere lively and exciting.
As a result, this fired up Ji Yu.
“Senior” said confidently, “Watch me!”
She didn’t think about a big diamond—even a few small stones would make the visit worth it.
What if she got lucky and won big?
Hmm, people spending five or ten dollars on lottery tickets all thought like that too!
Gao Jing smiled without a word, letting her hold the sieve and work hard at sieving and washing.
He went back to keep digging the hole.
Earlier, when Gao Jing was searching online about Crater of Diamonds State Park, he saw some people saying the surface gemstones there had long been dug clean.
To keep business going, park staff secretly scattered small raw gemstones every once in a while.
This kept attracting tourist visits.
Gao Jing thought this made sense, and a gas station owner had also warned him.
But the surface had nothing left.
Then what about under the surface?
He dug a pit over half a meter deep.
He looked around and saw no one was watching him, so Gao Jing quietly took off the bell hanging on his chest.
He tossed it into the dirt hole.
Meow~