{"id":435,"date":"2026-10-02T20:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T20:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/?p=435"},"modified":"2026-10-02T20:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T20:06:11","slug":"arkansas-american-dream-diamond-crater-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/?p=435","title":{"rendered":"ARKANSAS GEM HUNTER PULLS A 6-CARAT \u2018AMERICAN DREAM\u2019! | Collectors float $1M talk \u2014 appraiser still says ~$250k haul"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Forget Vegas. The biggest jackpot this week came out of a five-gallon bucket in Murfreesboro. Navy reservist Jack Pearadin and a digging partner shoveled a <strong>6.03-carat<\/strong> yellow diamond \u2014 named the <strong>\u201cAmerican Dream\u201d<\/strong> \u2014 at Crater of Diamonds State Park, the largest find there this year, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www-cdn.abcnews.com\/Lifestyle\/wireStory\/arkansas-gem-hunter-found-1-million-diamond-136943630\">Associated Press<\/a> reported Friday (via ABC).<\/p>\n<p>Pearadin says collectors have told him it could be worth over <strong>$1 million<\/strong>. At least one experienced appraiser told AP a stone of that size and quality might fetch about a fourth of that \u2014 still life-changing for a $15 park entry fee. On TikTok he shouted the discovery live: \u201cHoly crap, we got a big one!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More than <strong>37,000<\/strong> diamonds have been found at the former mine since it became a state park in 1972. Most annual finds weigh about a quarter-carat; bigger scores include a 9-carat stone in 2020 and a 7-carat find in 2024. The U.S. record remains the <strong>40.23-carat Uncle Sam<\/strong> (1924), later cut for the Smithsonian.<\/p>\n<p>Pearadin has hunted there since 2013 and plans to split proceeds with fellow digger Michael Schumacher \u2014 then chase opening his own crystal mine. America: still the only place you can rent a shovel and keep the fortune.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www-cdn.abcnews.com\/Lifestyle\/wireStory\/arkansas-gem-hunter-found-1-million-diamond-136943630\">Associated Press \/ ABC News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Collectors float $1M talk \u2014 appraiser still says ~$250k haul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/bb-arkansas-diamond-1002.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}