Travelers just got another reason to visit America’s state and national parks .
Earlier this month, Parisian tourist Julien Navas discovered a 7.5-carat chocolate-colored diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, as reported by The Washington Post . It’s the eighth-largest diamond found at the park since 1972, and one of the largest ever unearthed in the United States.
“It was one of the most amazing surprises, after the birth of my daughter,” Navas told the Post in an email.
Crater of Diamonds has been prolific in terms of precious rocks: Some 35,250 diamonds have been discovered since it became a state park in 1972, weighing just over 7,000 carats in total. The largest found since then was a 16.4-carat rock in 1975; before that, it was an impressive 40-carat diamond in 1924.
Navas was familiar with the park’s reputation, and he’s been searching for gems and gold since he was little. But his trip to the U.S. was initially meant as a visit to see the Peregrine lunar lander take off from Cape Canaveral. (The rocket’s trip ultimately failed , with a fuel incident causing the lander to burn up in the sky.)