Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 137, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1918 — 1,500 DIAMONDS FOUND IN ARKANSAS FIELDS. [ARTICLE]

1,500 DIAMONDS FOUND IN ARKANSAS FIELDS.

Gems Picked Out of Crude Machine By Watchman —One Weighs Thirty Carats. Buffalo, ArL—From 1,000 to 1,500 diamonds have been found by one company Operating in the Pike county diamond field during the last year. The caretaker of one of the properties that is idle found 200 during that period, having recovered them by a crude hand-washing method from the peridotite, the formation in which they are found. The largest diamond found is reported to have weighed thirty carats. As to the actual production of the field no one knows because operations are guarded very closely. One company, however, has been In steady operation for several years. The ground belonging to this company and others is inclosed by high barbed wire fences and no one is admitted without proper credentials. The company has a big diamond washing plant near Murfreesboro, Ark., the dirt being hauled by a motor railroad about two miles. The main peridotite bed occupies about eighty acres. Two other smaller areas showing peridotite have been discovered two miles from there. One shows from ten to fifteen acres of this diamond bearing ground, and the other about five. ’