MURFREESBORO, Ark. — A family from Oklahoma recently took home one special souvenir from the Natural State— a nearly three-carat brown diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park!

Raynae Madison and her family discovered the gem on the north side of the park’s 37.5-acre diamond search area, near Prospector Trailhead.

“At first I thought it looked really neat, but I wasn’t sure what it was,” she said. “I honestly thought it was too big to be a diamond!”

The family took the stone to the park’s Diamond Discovery Center, where staff identified it as a diamond weighing 2.79 carats.

“Brown diamonds from the Crater occur due to a process called plastic deformation, which creates structural defects during a diamond’s formation or movement in magma," said Emma O'Neal, Park Interpreter at Crater of

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