Nowata County man finds 4.21 carat diamond at Crater of Diamonds Park

A man from Nowata is a little richer, but he's not sure by how much. He's the one who found what's been dubbed "Okie Dokie" diamond in Arkansas. He found it Sunday at the Crater of Diamonds

Sunday, March 12th 2006, 8:43 pm

By: News On 6

A man from Nowata is a little richer, but he's not sure by how much. He's the one who found what's been dubbed "Okie Dokie" diamond in Arkansas. He found it Sunday at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in southwest Arkansas.

News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says it's convenient that Marvin Culver is an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper and knows something about security. "Luckily we've only had it one night, and we kept it on the nightstand, but we're keeping it close for now."

And who wouldn't - a 4 carat yellow diamond - that he found? "And lo and behold there it was in the basket.â€ Culver was in Arkansas, at the Crater of Diamonds State Park. A regular crowd of prospectors, mingle with families just out to have fun looking for diamonds.

OHP trooper Culver took his wife, niece and nephew and found the diamond within an hour. "But it just looked out of place and didn't have any dirt sticking to it."

What he found is extraordinary, the 17th largest diamond found at the site ever, at 4.2 carats. It's the size of diamond that most prospectors and brides only dream of and its color might only make it rarer.

Howard Cunningham with Cunningham Diamonds and Fine Jewelry: â€œI think it's valuable, but you can't tell how much until its cut and polished." Cunningham says a diamond that size is worth at least thousands of dollars - possibly as much as a 100,000, but there's no way to know without cutting it.

Culver doesn't think he's going to sell. "Probably my wife has designs on that, she pretty much took it over since I found it, I just got it have for the find and that's the last I really got to have it except for right now, I'm sure she'll try to make it into a ring before it's over with."