A Navy reservist hunting gems at an Arkansas state park pulled a 6-carat yellow diamond from the dirt that collectors now say could be worth more than a million dollars.
Jack Pearadin and fellow hunter Michael Schumacher shoveled gravel from the field at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, about 100 miles southwest of Little Rock. Pearadin later rinsed the bucket at his home workshop. That is when the 6.03-carat yellow stone appeared, roughly the size of a fingernail.
Breitbart reported that Pearadin live-streamed the moment on TikTok and that the find is the largest diamond recovered at the park this year. He named the stone the “American Dream” and plans to split the profits with Schumacher, who helped dig the gravel.
Pearadin’s reaction on the stream was pure shock.
"Oh my God! Oh my God!"
Then:
"Holy crap, we got a big one!"
Pearadin is a Navy reservist and longtime gem hunter originally from Missouri. He moved to Murfreesboro to chase the hobby full-time. He has spent 13 years at it. He put it simply: “I love it that much.”
Most diamonds pulled from the park are small and worth only a couple hundred dollars. This one is different. Collectors told Pearadin the yellow stone could fetch more than a million dollars. A certified gem appraiser told a news outlet the diamond would typically go for about $250,000. The higher figure remains a collector estimate, not a final sale price.
Crater of Diamonds sits on a 37-acre field, the eroded surface of an old volcanic crater. Visitors pay $15 a day, fill a bucket with gravel, and keep whatever they uncover. No government clawback. No corporate claim. You dig it, you own it.
The site was once an open-pit mine. It became part of a state park in 1972. Since then, more than 37,000 diamonds have been found there, according to the park’s own figures. Notable past recovers include the 40.23-carat Uncle Sam, the largest diamond ever unearthed in the United States, along with the 16.37-carat Amarillo Starlight, the 15.33-carat Star of Arkansas, and the 8.52-carat Esperanza.
The Uncle Sam crystal was later cut and polished down to 12.42 carats and given to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, where it sits in the Great American Diamonds exhibit. Natural diamonds often lose about a quarter of their weight in cutting and polishing. Pearadin’s stone has not yet gone through that process in the public record.
Schumacher, a gem hunter from Wisconsin, put in the shovel work beside Pearadin. The two men will share whatever the sale brings. No elaborate scheme. No federal grant. Just two people willing to dig, rinse, and take the risk that most buckets turn up nothing.
That is the point of the park’s rule. Arkansas opened the old mine ground to the public and let citizens keep the reward. Pearadin spent more than a decade showing up. One afternoon the gravel finally paid him back.
Valuation will settle later, after grading and the market speak. For now the carat weight, the color, and the live-streamed discovery stand. A working man named his diamond the American Dream. Hard to argue with the label.
Opportunity still rewards the people who show up with a shovel and refuse to quit.
