Arkansas man discovers 2.37-carat diamond

Visitor to mineral-rich park names stone after his wife

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updated 7:25 a.m. ET Jan. 1, 2007

MURFREESBORO, Ark. - An Arkansas man has found a 2.37-carat white diamond at the world's only diamond-bearing site where visitors are allowed to search for and keep the gems they find.

Gary Dunlap of Jefferson named the diamond he found the Star of Thelma to honor his wife of more than 10 years. Dunlap's find was the fourth-largest diamond found in 2006 at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro. In all, 486 diamonds have been found at the park this year.

Dunlap found the gem Sunday while looking near a Bois d'Arc tree on the park's 37.5-acre search field. He said he felt certain the shiny stone was a diamond when he picked it up off the ground. Dunlap has visited the park about a dozen times but this was his first diamond find.

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In March, a state trooper from Nowata, Okla., unearthed the 4.21 yellow Okie Dokie Diamond. In September, a Point, Texas, couple found the 6.35-carat brown Roden Diamond. The following month, a visitor from Ripon, Wis., found the 5.47-carat yellow Sunshine Diamond.

The largest of the 25,000 diamonds found at the park since it became a state park in 1972 is the 16.37-carat Amarillo Starlight. A visitor from Texas found the white diamond in 1975.