Domestic Diamond Mining?

Greetings, This may be an odd question, but I am planning a two day
trip to the Diamond Crater State Park
http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/parks/park.asp?id=22 in April to
dig for stones. My question for those of you who have done this is
what is the most effective way to do it? Should I make a screen
box, use a large tea strainer, try panning like I would with gold or
what?

Thanks,
Jim Revells
Sudden Service #5
Massachusetts

Jim, The long time searchers at the park use screen boxes about 2x2
ft. If I recall you can also get screens at the entrance, though my
memory may be a bit foggy on that. Take a small screen box to be
sure. A trench shovel and a hand rake will come in handy too. If you
are lucky, it will be a rainy day…or the morning after a heavy
rainy day and you can sometimes see stones sitting on the surface -
washed out by the rain. By the way, you will probably also fine a
lot of barite…don’t let it fool you for being a diamond!

Also, if you want a real treat (and if it’s still there) have some
catfish and hot pecan pie at the old station resturant in town. Best
pie I ever tasted!.

Have fun…Don at The Charles Belle Studio in SOFL where simple
elegance IS fine jewelry! @coralnut2

Jim, I was given the chance to cut quite a few of the diamonds from
the park years ago and even got to cut a rough D Flawless 6.5 carat
diamond into a 2.89 pearshape. So the old timers invited me down to
try my luck and they at that time were digging holes and screen
washing what they got concentrated. But I have heard that there is no
more digging allowed but you can take buckets up to their water
supply and wash them for heavies like you would gold…I knew what to
look for and found a mighty .05 carat rough diamond for three days
work but had the time of my life hearing all the stories and pretty
country. Ron Kreml

Thanks to all who answered my questions. The purpose of the hunt is
to find one small raw stone that I can use in an Arts & Sciences
project for a Society for Creative Anachronism (http://www.sca.org/)
A&S exhibit (I’ll be out there on another reason, but am killing two
birds with one stone). The plan is to hand polish the faces of the
raw diamond & create a high karat setting like the Roman ring on pg
37 of “Ancient Jewellery” by Jack Ogden (or if I can find the
documentation for it again a Roman stirrup shaped ring that I saw in
one of the fifty odd books on historic jewelry I have here at the
house). I will also try to find the gold to do this with by panning
for it in New England (if I don’t have any luck I will have to buy
the stone & the gold for the project). The goal is to create a
museum quality reproduction using period techniques (this project
will probably be using the techniques available to a late Roman era
jeweler in York, I usually do Viking era projects based on finds at
Birka or Gottland for my hobby, most of the jewelry I design for
modern customers is based on Medieval themes). Thanks to all,

Jim Revells,
Sudden Service Jewelry & Watch Repair,
Massachuets