The Crater of Diamonds State Park is located in Murfreesboro in Pike County, Arkansas. Although you can find small clear quartz here, this locality is world-renowned as the only diamond-producing site that is open to the public. Here visitors can search for actual diamonds (not quartz)  in their original volcanic source and keep any diamonds they find.

The Crater of Diamonds is a unique rockhounding experience that attracts people from all over the world to look for their own diamonds. Visitors to the park search a 37-acre field located on an eroded surface of a volcanic crater. Besides diamonds, a variety of other rocks, minerals, and gemstones can be found such as jasper, amethyst, quartz, garnet, spinel, barite and more. You may bring your own mining equipment to search with or rent tools from the park or other local outfitters. A shovel, bucket, screen set and a saruca are essential for a successful mining experience unless you plan to collect on the surface only. There are several washing stations on site for processing the diamond-bearing lamporite clay. Dedicated and experienced diamond miners will seek out a specific layer of gravel, load buckets of that material and sift this gravel through several sizes of screens. Once classified, the smallest-sized material is centered through the use of a saruca pan and then flipped on a flat surface. Diamonds are the densest stone found here, so the heavy weight will result in the diamond being in the very center of the flip - if you were lucky enough to have a diamond in the batch. The concentrated material from these centers are generally taken home by miners to dry out and inspect carefully for small diamonds.

More than 35,000 diamonds have been found by park visitors since the Crater of Diamonds became a state park. Notable diamonds found at the Crater include the 40.23-carat Uncle Sam (the largest diamond ever unearthed in the U.S.); the 16.37-carat Amarillo Starlight; the 15.33-carat Star of Arkansas; and the 8.52-carat Esperanza.

The first diamond was found here in 1906 by John Huddleston, a farmer who owned a portion of the diamond-bearing crater at that time. In 1972, the State of Arkansas purchased the Crater of Diamonds for development as a state park. It is one of the most-visited destinations in the state of Arkansas.

The diamond search area is plowed periodically which helps to loosen the surface soil and promote diamond finds. Plowing is unscheduled and not a necessity for a successful dig.

Entry fee into the park is $15 per day. The park is open 7 days a week, year-round.

Access is easy and well marked on fully paved roads. There is a visitor center and gift shop as well as camping on site.