12-year-old Apex boy unearths 5-carat diamond

Park officials said Saturday that Michael Dettlaff, found the honey brown diamond on July 31 after searching for less than 10 minutes. He named it God's Glory Diamond.

"We're just looking around a little bit, on the ground, surface hunting. That's when I found the diamond on the ground. It looked different than anything else...I really didn't think it was a diamond," said Dettlaff.

Park officials say the diamond is about the size of a jellybean and is the 328th diamond found this year.

"I just thank God once again he could bless me with a great find," the 12-year-old said. 

Park Interpreter Waymon Cox said, “It is thrilling any time a child finds a diamond here at Crater of Diamonds State Park. Michael was excited to have found his own diamond, as just about any boy would be, but he was absolutely awestruck when he realized its significance.” Cox noted, “The gem is the 27th largest diamond found a park visitor since Arkansas’s diamond site became a state park in 1972. It is the eighth-largest brown diamond that has been certified by park staff.”

Michael found the gem on the north end of the diamond search area near a sign that marks where the 15.33-carat Star of Arkansas, a white diamond that is the third largest diamond to ever come from the site, was found in 1956 when it was a privately-operated tourist attraction.

More than 75,000 diamonds have been found at the site since the first discovery in 1906 by John Huddleston, the farmer who owned the land at the time.

The largest diamond ever discovered in the United States was unearthed at the site in 1924 and weighed 40.23 carats.