A seven-year-old girl made the discovery of a lifetime while celebrating her birthday at Crater of Diamonds Park in Arkansas. Aspen Brown managed to find the second-largest diamond of the year when she unearthed a 2.95-carat golden brown diamond.
"She got hot and wanted to sit down for a minute, so she walked over to some big rocks by the fence line," her father, Luther Brown, told KAIT. "Next thing I know, she was running to me, saying, 'Dad! Dad! I found one.'"
As they left the park, they took the pea-sized diamond to the park's Diamond Discovery Center to get it cleaned and find out how large it was.
"Aspen's diamond has a golden-brown color and a sparkling luster. It is a complete crystal, with no broken facets and a small crevice on one side, created when the diamond was formed," said Waymon Cox, assistant park superintendent. "It's certainly one of the most beautiful diamonds I've seen in recent years."
Caleb Howell, the park's superintendent, said the large diamond was likely brought to the surface during a recent excavation project to manage erosion.
"Several tons of unsearched diamond-bearing material were exposed, and it's very possible that this diamond and others were uncovered as a result," Howell noted.