A birthday trip turned into a gem of a day when a woman dug up a rare brown diamond weighing almost three carats.
Raynae Madison was sifting through dirt with her family when she spotted the unusual stone glinting in the soil.
What looked like a dull rock turned out to be a 2.79-carat diamond – one of the biggest found this year.
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The dazzling discovery was made on 13 September at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, US, where the family had stopped off during a weekend birthday outing, as reported by What’s The Jam.
Armed only with a cheap beach digging kit and sand sifters from a dollar store, they started searching near the Prospector Trailhead on the park’s 37.5-acre search field.
After filling a few buckets, Raynae noticed the shiny oblong stone while sifting through the dirt.
She said: “At first I thought it looked really neat, but I wasn’t sure what it was.
“I honestly thought it was too big to be a diamond.”
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Her family rushed the find to the park’s Diamond Discovery Center, where staff confirmed it was a whopper – weighing in at 2.79 carats.
Park bosses say it’s the third-biggest stone logged in 2025, topping a 2.3-carat beauty found earlier this summer.
More than 400 diamonds have already been registered at the park this year, several of them tipping the scales at over two carats.
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Emma O’Neal, park interpreter at Crater of Diamonds, explained: “Brown diamonds from the Crater occur due to a process called plastic deformation, which creates structural defects during a diamond’s formation or movement in magma.
“These defects reflect red and green light, combining to make the diamond appear brown.
“2025 has been a great year for large diamond finds! So far, we have registered four diamonds weighing over two-carats.”
The striking chocolate-brown gem, with its distinctive markings, has since been named the William Diamond after Raynae’s young nephew.
The site is world-famous for producing incredible treasures – from giant historical gems to lucky strikes by everyday visitors.
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