Christian Liden has nurtured a dream since 8th grade: to one day create an engagement ring for his future wife out of materials he himself mined. It was this dream that propelled him to Arkansas’s Crater of Diamonds State Park where he discovered a 2.20 carat yellow diamond—especially precious.
Liden, 26, made the 2,000-mile trip from Poulsbo, Washington, with a friend. They arrived on May 7, armed with mining equipment they had built themselves, and spent an hour wet sifting for diamonds before retiring for the night.
