Teen Finds 7.44 Carat ‘Superman’s Diamond’ in Arkansas State Park

(Arkansas State Parks)

What’s the luckiest thing that happened to you today? I thought I was pretty lucky when I ran out of toilet paper and realized there was already a spare roll in the bathroom. But 14-year-old Kalel Langford just found a 7.44-carat diamond while visiting a state park, so his “lucky day” scale is probably going to be pretty different from now on.

According to USA Today, Kalel Langford was at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas on Saturday, and he’d only been there about 30 minutes when he spotted a shiny, dark brown rock on the ground and picked it up. Crater of Diamonds is a 37-acre plowed field over a diamond-bearing volcanic crater, which means it’s full of diamonds and other gems of various sizes, shapes, and colors. Visitors who find them can keep them.

Kalel Langford had only been at the park around 30 minutes when he found it. It was brown and rough, but it was shiny so he picked it up to check out at the park’s Diamond Discovery Center later. When he took it there, they confirmed that his diamond was 7.44 carats, and it’s the seventh largest diamond discovered at the park since it became a state park in 72. It’s about the size of a pinto bean and the color of a cup of black coffee. The park didn’t estimate its value. That would depend on its grade, color, quality, etc. It could be functionally worthless or it could be worth a fortune.

Crater of Diamonds has white, brown, and yellow diamonds, and over the years some very treasured specimens have been found there. The park’s more famous finds include a 4.25-carat yellow diamond that was loaned twice to Hillary Clinton to wear to her husband’s inaugurations in 1993 and 1997. The biggest diamond ever discovered in the U.S. is a 40.23-carat white diamond called Uncle Sam, which was found there in 1924 and later cut into a 12.42-carat gem. In 2015 a visitor from Colorado found an 8.52-carat white diamond that the finder named the Esperanza. It was later cut and graded and is now a colorless, flawless, 4.6-carat diamond worth around $500,000.

Kalel Langford says he’s naming his find the Superman Diamond, which is when I realized that Kalel is named after Superman, too. (Superman’s real name is Kal-El.) He says he’s going to keep the diamond for a souvenir.

Crater of Diamonds is probably going to get an uptick in tourism after this.

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