Arkansas
Arizona father and son finds 2 carat diamond while digging at Arkansas state park
AZ father and son make big diamond find
What began as a road trip ended up with the Arizona father-and-son team finding an uncut diamond at a state park in Arkansas where people can look for the precious mineral. FOX 10’s Steve Nielsen reports.
PHOENIX – It began with a road trip between an Arizona father and his son, and it ended with the two coming back home with a two-carat diamond.
Marshall and his father, Will Barnett, went to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. It’s a unique place where anyone can go and dig for diamonds. Per the park’s website, it is one of the only diamond-producing sites in the world where members of the public can search for diamonds in their original volcanic source. Will has a connection to Arkansas: he grew up out there, and his uncle was an employee with Arkansas State Park.
“I scraped my bucket off the top, and Marshall is digging for China, man,” said Will. “He’s going as deep as he can, so we carried both of our buckets up to the wash center.”
The two love sifting dirt for treasure, but this time, the dirt seemed different.
“Flip it over and look for maybe 10 seconds, and I go ‘hey Marshall, you should come take a look. There might be a diamond in this screen,’” Will recounted. “Not sure, but it looked different than anything we’d seen.”
The two later took a shiny rock up to the diamond identification center.
“They finally call us back, and the park superintendent let us know it was a 2.03 carat Arkansas diamond. Second largest diamond in the park that year,” Will said. “We’re talking, like, 0.0002% chance of finding one that big, so we definitely played the lottery on the way home that day too!”
For Will and his son, the trip was a bonding experience that is as rare as the diamond they found.
“There’s beauty to be found, as long as you’re open-minded enough to find it,”: Will said. He also stressed that people don’t have to drive to Arkansas to find treasure, as they can also be found in the Grand Canyon State.
As for the park itself, their website notes a rather special connection it has to Arizona: the first person to buy a ticket at the then-newly-opened Visitor Information Center on June 2, 1979 was a Black Canyon City man named James Williamson. Williamson also found a 5.08 carat brown diamond, and became the first person to register a find at the facility.
The No. 36 Arkansas men’s tennis team had a pair of matches in Austin on Sunday to close out a Texas road trip and the Hogs went 1-1 in the outings.
The Razorbacks (15-10, 3-8) started the day with a 4-0 loss to No. 3 Texas (18-6, 9-2). The Longhorns’ Kalin Ivanovski and Abel Forger defeated No. 64 Connor Smillie and Jakub Vrba 6-3 to start doubles. No. 23 Sebastian Gorzny and Lucas Marionneau then took down Brendan Boland and Dmitry Kopilevich 6-1, and Texas claimed the doubles point.
In singles, No. 90 Abel Forger quickly won over Arsène Pogault on court four at 6-1, 6-1. Oliver Ojakaar made it 3-0 Texas with a 6-4, 6-1 takedown of Gabriel Elicha Navas, and Lucas Marionneau sealed the sweep for the home team with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Brendan Boland.
Against the University of Incarnate Word (10-3, 2-0) later in the day, two of Arkansas’ doubles pairings won: Vrba and Smillie 7-5 over Santiago Flyckt and Marcel Moralles and Boland and Kopilevich 6-3 over Alexandre Chauvel and Alejandro Hernandez. Lukas Palovic and Eric Padgham were also up 6-5 over Augustin Salazar and Emilio Vila.
The Hogs continued to dominate in singles as No. 18 Vrba defeated Vila 6-4, 6-3, Kopilevich won 6-1, 6-1 over Salazar and Smillie took down Christian Cuellar 6-0, 6-4 for a 4-0 clean sweep to close out the day.
The Razorbacks return to action at home on Thursday, April 2 with an SEC matchup against Mississippi State at 5:30 p.m.
For the latest information on all things Arkansas Men’s Tennis, follow the Hogs on social media by liking us on Facebook (Arkansas Razorback Men’s Tennis) and following us on Twitter and Instagram (@RazorbackMTennis).
We’ve got clouds to start out this Sunday with temperatures on the cool side. Once clouds exit, which should be later this afternoon, temperatures will warm into the 70s.
We’ll be back into the 80s both tomorrow and Tuesday. Dry conditions will continue through the next couple of days with a high wildfire danger persisting statewide.
Rain chances return midweek, with Wednesday through Friday bringing what could be a meaningful rainfall. Rainfall amounts are still uncertain, but we’re getting closer to pinpointing that. Stay tuned for updates!
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — After a hotly contested race, Renegade emerged as the winner of the 2026 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn on Saturday.
The horse is owned by Robert & Lawana L. Low and Repole Stable, trained by Todd Pletcher, and ridden by jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. Renegade entered the race with 3/2 odds to win.
Silent Tactic finished in second place and Taptastic took home third.
In addition to his share of the $1.5 million purse, Renegade also earned points toward the Kentucky Derby.
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