The most popular gemstone locality in Arkansas is Crater of Diamonds State Park, where anyone can pay a fee, look for diamonds, and keep any that are found. The site is an operating state park, and visitors usually find hundreds of small diamonds every year. There are several other fee mining areas in the state where you can pay a fee, look for minerals and keep what you find.

Arkansas’s most important gem material is quartz. In Arkansas, clear quartz is often called “rock crystal.” It is produced and sold as specimens and also used for faceted stones, beads, carvings, spheres and decorative items. Exceptional specimens of rock crystal can sell for thousands of dollars. Clear, undamaged single crystals are made into pendants, earrings and other types of jewelry. In addition to rock crystal, Arkansas produces other quartz gems including agate, chert, jasper, opal, petrified wood, and smoky quartz (frequently heat-treated rock crystal).