Visit the Natural State

Floor Speech

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, the House recently, by unanimous voice vote, passed the EXPLORE Act to enhance outdoor recreation opportunities for all Americans.

Arkansas is home to a wide variety of beautiful State parks. Many of these parks are in the Fourth District, but today I rise to highlight a unique park that is truly and literally a gem.

Murfreesboro, Arkansas, is home to the only public diamond mine in the world where visitors are allowed to keep their findings. The Crater of Diamonds is a 37\1/2\-acre field that became an Arkansas State park in 1972. With over 75,000 diamond findings since the first discovery in 1906, significant diamonds that have been discovered here are the Amarillo Starlight, Esperanza, and the most notable, Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam is the largest diamond ever unearthed in the United States and is now one of two diamonds on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in the Great American Diamonds exhibit.

I encourage the Senate to pass the bipartisan EXPLORE Act and for everyone to visit the Natural State. While you are there experiencing the great outdoors, be sure to schedule a visit to the Crater of Diamonds to discover your own piece of American history.

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