Road Trip!

On 26 April 2011, Beth Gilbertson found an 8.66 carat diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas.  She named it the Illusion Diamond.

Ms. Gilbertson is from Colorado and takes yearly vacations to Arkansas to dig for diamonds.  Isn't America a great country?  Where else would a state maintain a 37.5-acre plowed field so visitors can dig for diamonds and keep what they find?  The land was purchased by Arkansas for tourism in 1972.  The decision to purchase the land for $750,000 for public use was sheer genius; it is in the middle of nowhere and draws a steady influx of tourist dollars to an undeveloped section of Arkansas.  On average, two diamonds smaller than one carat are found a day.  

Mrs. Clinton wore a yellow diamond found at the Crater of Diamonds State Park to President Clinton's 1993 Inaugural Ball.  The Kahn Diamond is a 4.25 carat, vivid strong yellow diamond crystal owned by Kahn Jewelers of Pine Bluff Arkansas.  Kahn Jewelers loaned the diamond to Mrs. Clinton, and Henry Dunay of New York designed and fabricated the ring.  Kahn Jewelers displays the ring in their Pine Bluff store.