Editor’s note: while not a rockhound myself, Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds is a place that has always fascinated me with dreams of striking it rich. Morgan, our resident geology nut, shares her story both of digging for diamonds and a more productive set of quartz digs. For more of her stories of travel for gems and fossils, click here to visit her index page.

If you’re looking for a place with everything from riveting museums, to bars with bullet holes from battles with Chicago gangsters, to a State Park with natural diamonds lying in wait for everyday visitors, to quartz fields, consider a trip to Arkansas.

Cultural Gems in Arkansas

Little Rock, Arkansas boasts several museums that might sound dull but are instead full of unique history. The Old State House Museum, for example, contains dozens of dresses that First Ladies of Arkansas have worn to their husbands’ inaugural balls. While we may have learned about the politicians themselves, first spouses are often overlooked in history, and their accomplishments often glossed over. The Old State House celebrates their impact along with their fashion choices, highlighting first ladies who were active in political changes such as women’s suffrage, education, prison reform, racial equity, and healthcare. The collection extends all the way back through the 1800s and contains several dresses that are too delicate to even hang on a mannequin. One stunning example is Eula Terral’s 1925 inaugural gown, which is said to have shocked society at the time because she showed a bit of her leg.

Little Rock Central High School is another important portion of United State history
as a place where forced racial desegregation occurred in 1957. President Eisenhower
involved military escorts to assist Black students in attending the school after the
Arkansas governor blocked their attendance multiple times.

Physical Gems in the Ouachita Mountains

Geologically, Arkansas contains two separate mountain areas: the Ozarks, which extend into Missouri and Oklahoma, and the Ouachita Mountains. Little Rock is part of the Ouachitas, which run east to west (in contrast to the north to south direction of the larger mountain ranges in the US). The Ouachitas contain the quartz capital of the world, Mount Ida, as well as a unique type of chert called novaculite, which can only be found in this area.

As you might imagine, rockhounding near the world’s quartz capital is easy and fruitful! North Little Rock contains sites of previous quartz quarries, including one where solution quartz (a type of quartz that’s very clear and typically contains intricate arrangements of crystals) was discovered. I reached the area via a long hike full of brambles, sliding down wet embankments to find myself face-to-skull with a deer graveyard. After the initial shock, I began crunching around looking for quartz crystals. Within just a few minutes, I had claimed more than I could carry on the hike back out! The quartz crystals were easy to find strewn about the ground, making me reflect on how stunning the crystals that came out of the mine would have been.

Hot Springs Town and National Park

Just a short drive from Little Rock you’ll find Hot Springs, a unique place in many ways. These hot springs are not caused by volcanic activity, but rather by the shape of the Ouachita Mountains, which allow rainwater to become heated by the fault line itself. The cultural history of Hot Springs, tangled and convoluted, includes one of the strangest US National Parks – with a town in the middle of the park.

Historically, Hot Springs provided indigenous Americans with the aforementioned novaculite, an ideal form of chert for tool creation. Shortly after being acquired by the United States in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, Hot Springs became a federal reservation (in 1832). This designation makes it the oldest US National Park, set aside even before the establishment of the National Park Service.

As the town developed around the then-state-of-the-art thermal medicine industry, it attracted visitors from around the world with its boasts of healing via the mineral waters. Hot Springs also served as a respite for everyone from famous athletes to gangsters from New York and Chicago. These gangsters occasionally had shootouts with local police, the evidence of which can still be found at local establishments.

Today the park doesn’t contain any places to soak outdoors in the springs, but the historic bathhouses on Bathhouse Row are part of the National Park itself. The park still boasts a set of spigots that allow visitors to fill water containers with the natural spring water (after it’s been cooled).

Digging for Quartz and Diamonds

Right outside Hot Springs lie several family-run quartz mines, which run advertisements and billboards throughout the area. The fees are affordable compared to other pay-to-dig mining, and can be as low as $10 for the day. That $10 is well spent, considering that in just two hours of walking through the mine’s tailings I collected dozens of stunning specimens. The dig host, who lives onsite, spent much of that time in friendly conversation and assisted my search. Just after some rain is the ideal time to search for quartz on the surface, noticing the reflection
from the sun.

Also nearby is the famous Crater of Diamonds State Park, where for just $13 you can dig for diamonds all day and take sifted dirt home to dig through. The diamonds found there range in color from white to brown, and like the local quartz are often found simply resting on the surface after a rainstorm. This park has provided some record-breaking diamond finds, such as the 40.23 carat Uncle Sam diamond, which is the largest one found in the United States.

The best equipment for digging at the Crater of Diamonds park is called a saruca: a round screen that allows dirt sifting by weight, with the intended impact of pushing all the diamonds to the center. Once you flip the screen over, the heaviest material ends up concentrated, making the search for diamonds easier. My trip to this park was unfruitful even with a rented saruca system, especially compared to the piles of quartz from the other Arkansas sites I’d visited. The price for a day of digging couldn’t be beat, though.

On a nice warm day, I enjoyed the geology exhibits at the park, as well as the nearby Ka Do Ha Native American ancient burial mounds (which are not part of the state park, but a must-see while you’re in the area). The Ka Do Ha park, in addition to containing a unique museum and self-guided tour of the burial mounds, allows searching the field for artifacts, and also sells buckets of dirt that can contain local gemstones and fossils.

While Arkansas may not seem notable at first glance when considering a trip, it certainly provides cultural, historical, and geological beauty, and is worth exploring.

Like it? Pin it!