Rough Diamonds, Flashing Trophies, and a Baby
All
us Gillums took a trip one day. We went to the Crater of Diamonds State Park at
Murfreesboro, Arkansas. The kids were still young, and were excited about
digging around in that dirt ---for about ten minutes. We didn't find a diamond,
but it did have a profound effect on me. I was hooked.
That
park is one of a kind. It's the only place in the world where you can go in,
pay a modest fee, look for diamonds with a reasonable chance of finding one,
and keep what you find.
I
knew, after that trip, that I could never rest until I found a rough diamond.
Everyone has a cut diamond or two lying around, but who do you know that has a
rough diamond, straight from the earth?
I
watched what appeared to me to be the most serious hunters. What they did, the
tools they used. I filed it all away in my head.
It
was not long until I had my tools constructed, and had gathered up whatever
else I would need. I headed out for a three day trip.
Arriving at the diamond field, I studied rough diamonds that were on
display, so I could recognize one. I then hauled all of my equipment to the far
side of the field, where a hand pump and a water trough awaited.
I
found a likely spot, where the ground appeared to have been disturbed very
little. Those places were scarce, even then, in the 70's. The place I chose was
back in under a tree, and the chisel on a rod worked really well. I loaded up
ten five gallon buckets with mud, carried them to the trough, and washed it all
through a series of screens, the finest on the bottom. The larger gravel I laid
out to dry, then examined it on the field. The smallest I carried home to go
through more carefully.
I
was geared up like a pro now, and I played the part. If tourists tried to look
over my drying gravel, I ran them off. "Can't feed a family here, with
everybody looking through my gravel." They asked me if I made a good
living at it. "Well, I don't get very rich." "Do you have a real
diamond with you, so we can see what one looks like?" "Nah. Can't be carrying all that weight
around."
James Archer was an old man who hunted more than anybody in the old
days. And he found more. He was a legend, and I was fortunate enough to get to
work beside him and get to know him. I watched his methods, and tried to be
just like James Archer. I failed.
He
told me that one day he had found a really nice diamond, just as a couple of
rough men walked up. Afraid they might try to get it from him, he just dropped
it in his sand bucket. He was never able to find it again. Made me wonder how
many diamonds I might miss, going through my sand, if that could happen to a
legend.
Diamond fever is much like gold fever. It becomes a consuming obsession
for some men. Over the years, I have seen far more broken down old men, their
arms and legs shot, still chasing their dreams in that field, than I have seen
diamonds.
In those days, men just went deeper and deeper,
often for days. I have seen some holes that were 20 feet deep. But rules
eventually were established. Dig a hole, fill it back up that same day.
Fortunately for me, I still lived far away, and I was still very busy at
home, so my trips there were scarce. One more three day trip, later, and
scattered one day trips. After we lived at Arkadelphia, only a short drive
away, I worked hard at it only one winter. So I finished up pretty well
physically intact. But I did know a lot of men who finally left that field a
broken down old man. None of these, to my knowledge, got rich at it. Digging
diamonds, full time, the way the big boys do it, is a man killer.
Diamonds can be had the easy way on that field. Approach many of the
"professional" looking diggers, when you are alone, and ask if he has
any diamonds for sale. He may glance around, confirm nobody is looking, and
motion you to his backpack. He may pull out a brilliant display of rough
diamonds, each with a certification card. If you have the bucks, you can get a
rough diamond easily.
It's
not always easy to identify some diamonds. Some may be attached to other
minerals, and if one does not look at all sides of the sample closely, the
visible portion of the diamond may not show up well. The key discription is,
look for a metallic lustre. And, there
are lots of shiny minerals on that field. I have a little display showing one
diamond, and ten little gems that, to a novice, may look like a diamond. I have
asked lots of tourists to identify the diamond, and few can do it the first
time. Though I firmly believe I am by no means an identification expert. I
think that may have been one of my problems. After being turned down, time
after time, when I took a specimen up to the visitor's center for
certification, I got a little hesitant to try. Since I stopped digging, I have
seen many certified diamonds that I would have had doubts about, and probably
have passed on.
One
of the legendary hunters was telling me a little story. Said he and a tourist
were walking onto the field one morning. The tourist, obviously a rich man,
asked him if he had a large diamond for sale, at least six carats. He had to
tell him no, he didn't have one that size. After they went their seperate ways
a few steps, he noticed something on the ground, picked it up. After looking it
over good, he turned to the tourist, and hollered, "By the way, I do have
one about eight carats. Are you interested?" He was. Now, take stories
with a grain of salt. Diamond hunters are a lot like fishermen when it comes to
stories. One big man, who got really famous on the field for finding so many
diamonds one summer, and whose picture is still up in the visitor's center
because of it, told me he became so
famous with the tourists, that three different women approached him on the
field, and begged him into going into the woods with her. It seems to me that's just too easy no matter
how famous one is.
CONTINUED IN ONE WEEK Thanks for reading!
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