Grounded In Love: Man Finds 2.2-Carat Diamond For Engagement Ring

MURFREESBORO, AR — Christian Liden’s trip to some of the most beautiful places in America is spectacular even without the precious gems he’s been picking up along the way.

They aren’t catching the 26-year-old Poulsbo, Washington, man’s eye from a cookie-cutter lighted display counter found in any mall in any city in the United States.

Liden is mining for them — grounding his love for his future wife in every search, in a manner of speaking.

His 2,000-mile journey, which began five years ago when he panned for gold in his home state of Washington, is the culmination of a dream he’s kept alive since he was a middle schooler.

Liden wanted to create an engagement ring with stones and gold he mined himself. He found the grand prize, the centerpiece the ring, earlier this month in Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park.

It was nothing short of spectacular — a 2.2-carat yellow diamond, according to a news release from the state’s park service.

“I was just hoping to find a couple smaller stones and had planned to buy a center stone later,” he told Arkansas State Parks, “but that won’t be needed now.”

Liden and his traveling companion spent several days at Crater of Diamonds, and were wet-sifting on May 9 when the diamond revealed itself.

“I saw it shining as soon as I turned the screen over and immediately knew it was a diamond,” he told Arkansas State Parks. “I was shaking so bad, I asked my buddy to grab it out of the gravel for me.”

It’s a gorgeous, one-of-a-kind stone, according to Dru Edmonds, the assistant park superintendent, who described it as “light yellow, with a triangular shape and a sparkling, metallic luster.”

“As beautiful as this diamond is, I think the best part is the story behind it,” Edmonds said in the news release.

Liden named the diamond “Washington Sunrise,” explaining it has “a nice, light yellow color just like sunlight in Washington.”

Arkansas park officials say the diamond Liden found is the largest discovered in the park since October, when a visitor from Fayetteville, Arkansas, spotted a 4.49-carat yellow diamond in dirt at the site of an ancient, diamond-bearing volcano pipe.

To date, more than 75,000 diamonds have been unearthed at the Arkansas park since they first were discovered in 1906 by farmer John Huddleston on what at the time was his land. The land was turned into a state park in 1972.

The park is also the site of the largest diamond ever unearthed in the United States, a 40.23-carat white diamond with a pink cast found during an early mining operation. Called “the Uncle Sam Diamond,” the rock was later cut into a 12.42-carat emerald shape and purchased by a private collector for $150,000 in 1971.

Maumelle, Arkansas, resident Kevin Kinard discovered the second-largest diamond ever found at the park on Labor Day 2020 , a large, brown 9.07-carat gem.

The Strawn-Wagner gem, found at the park in 1990 by Murfreesboro resident Shirley Strawn, is a 3.03-carat white diamond that was cut into a round brilliant diamond weighing 1.09 carats. The park service said the flawless, colorless gem was an ideal cut set in a platinum and 24-carat gold wring. The state of Arkansas bought the ring in 1998 for $34,700, placing it on permanent display at the park visitor center.

Visitors to the park find an average of one or two diamonds a day. So far in 2021, visitors have found 121 diamonds weighing more than 20 carats.

Stacy Hurst, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, said visitors always have interesting stories about what attracted them to Crater of Diamonds State Park and what they found when they got there.

Discovering a diamond is an unforgettable experience for gem hunters, “and it’s always exciting that our park gets to be part of that,” Hurst said.

Liden found the first gem for the ring at a sapphire mine in Montana, when he and his buddy tested the mining equipment they’d built. He and his buddy are headed to Nevada next to mine for opals before heading home and getting to work on the design of the engagement ring.

Patch has reached out to Liden to hear more about his adventure. We'll update this story if we hear back.

If You Go

Admission to the park’s diamond search area is currently limited to 1,500 tickets per day. Visitors are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance at CraterofDiamondsStatePark.com, to ensure access.