The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-10-17
DIAMOND FIELD
FOUND IN ARKANSAS

MURFREESBORO, Ark, September
| 24.-Two years ago John W. Huddle-
stone, an Arkansas farmer, bought 243
acres of land on the Little Missouri
River, two and one-half miles from
here, for $500. Six months later, while
| travelling over the ground, he picked up
a small crystal object which aroused
| his curiosity. After it had gone
| through the hands of number of ex-
perts It was pronounced a genuine
diamond.
Mr.. Huddlestone sold his 5000 farm
last week for $50, 900 and moved to
Arkadelphia, Ark. where there is a
college at which he intends to educate
his children. He himself can neither
read nor write.
Since he sold his place for $36. 600 the
people who bought it have taken out
in diamonds more than four times the
price paid, and, if the statements of
the government biologists are to be
relied on, a diamond field which may
rank favorably with those of the VaaI
River, in South Africa, has been found. |
Ten shafts already sunk within an
area Of one square mile have tapped |
many more diamond drills are working |
on adjacent properties, while enterpris- |
ing prospectors are working the shoals |
on the Little Missouri River and Prairie |
Creek, with the hope of good returns |
Land values have advanced in some |
cases from one dollar to a thousand |
dollars an acre, but, as the fields cover |
such large area, it is impossible for /
any syndicate to obtain control of all |
the supposedly good locations, and, as /
a result, much prospecting is being |
done by individuals. Diamonds have |
been found in different localities over a t
strip of country about five miles
broad and extending from Nashville up
to Yell County, distance of more than
eighty miles.
What from present development
seems to be the mother location of all
the diamonds found in this locality is
the center of an extinct volcano, stu
ated between the Little Missouri River
and Prairie Creek. At this point huge
blocks of peridotite, the diamond bear
ing rock, have been forced through |
the surface of the ground by volcanic
action, while in the middle of the era
ter appears the cone of the extinct |
volcano, rising out of the surrounding
level plain to an elevation of about two
hundred feet, making a mound 243
acres in size.
Government biologists advance the
theory that at some remote period the
Gulf of Mexico covered this section of
the country, and that during an erup-
ton of this volcano the waters rushed
in and the sudden cooling, together
with the terrific pressure of the earth,
produced the diamonds. They assert
that the peridotite is exactly the same I
as that found in the noted South Afri- ,
can diamond fields.
1nasmuch as a majority of the stones
thus far found were either picked up
on the surface or rooted out of the
earth with sticks, great care is being
taken to prevent any one from tres
passing on the properties Armed
guards are kept patrolling the boun-
daries of the original find both day and S
night. All photographers are barred {
from the field, and it was with much g
that pictures were finally OBJ :
tanned. 9
Every drill hole thus far sunk in the I
vicinity of the cone of the crater has I
uncovered diamond bearing rock For I
the most part the peridotite is foifhd | I
from twenty to twenty-five feet below
the surface of the ground. Above this f
is a stratum of pebbles such as are I
washed down by rivers. 1t is this per- a
maps more than anything else that '
causes biologists to believe that at one |
time the Gulf of Mexico extended be- .
yond the Little Missouri River and dur
ing this period these loose, smooth
rocks were deposited.
On the south side of the cone of the
crater the Little Missouri River has
worn channel almost deep enough
to uncover the peridotite. and in this
gravel prospectors expect to find many
loose diamonds. Several of them have