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.
Arkansas
OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Reasons to be skeptical on Arkansas’ PBS claims | Arkansas Democrat Gazette
John Brummett
John Brummett’s career in news began when he was in high school, as a part-time reporter for the Arkansas Democrat. He moved to the Arkansas Gazette in 1977.
He wrote a political column for the Gazette from 1986 to 1990. He was an editor for the Arkansas Times from 1990 to 1992.
In 1994, his book, “High Wire: From the Back Roads to the Beltway, the Education of Bill Clinton,” was published by Hyperion of New York City. He became a columnist with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 1994. In 2000, he signed a deal with Donrey Media Group, now known as Stephens Media, and wrote for them for 11 years.
He rejoined Democrat-Gazette as a columnist on Oct. 24, 2011.
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas basketball sophomore Karter Knox is probable to play against South Carolina, according to the SEC Availability Report released on Tuesday, Jan. 13.
John Calipari said Knox suffered a hip pointer injury during the No. 17 Razorbacks (12-4, 2-1 SEC) 95-73 loss to Auburn over the weekend. Arkansas returns to action against the Gamecocks on Wednesday, Jan. 14.
Calipari said he didn’t know the exact moment when Knox was hurt against Auburn, but it occurred during the first period as Knox did not play after halftime. He finished the night with zero points in seven minutes.
During his weekly radio show on Monday, Jan. 12, Calipari confirmed Knox had not practiced since the loss to Auburn.
This is not the first time Knox has dealt with an injury this season. He missed the opening game of the year with a toe sprain. The second-year guard is averaging 8.6 points and five rebounds while shooting a team-best 43.5% from 3-point range.
If Knox can play, he would get the chance to go against his older brother for the first time in their respective college careers. Kobe Knox is a redshirt senior at South Carolina after transferring from South Florida before the season.
If something changes before tipoff and Karter is sidelined, one of Billy Richmond III or Meleek Thomas will start against the Gamecocks.
Richmond would be a seamless replacement on the defensive end, although he is not as good of an outside shooter. Richmond is averaging 8.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists.
Thomas would be the aggressive pick on offense. The five-star freshman is Arkansas’ second-leading scorer with 15.4 points per game.
The biggest question is whether Calipari would go deeper into his bench to replace Knox in Arkansas’ eight-man rotation. Isaiah Sealy has been the Hogs’ ninth man this season, but he’s only averaging 8.9 minutes and has appeared in four games since the beginning of December.
Jackson Fuller covers Arkansas football, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Times Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at jfuller@usatodayco.com or follow him @jacksonfuller16 on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Arkansas
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