<\/p>\n
A man who traveled cross-country to mine diamonds for his girlfriend\u2019s engagement ring dug up a 2.2-carat diamond.<\/p>\n
Christian Liden from Washington always dreamt of finding a raw diamond to create his one-of-a-kind engagement ring for his future spouse, and now, his dream has turned into reality.<\/p>\n
Liden imagined mining his own gems for an engagement ring since he was in middle school, but as he grew older, he didn\u2019t know how difficult it would be to find the raw gems in America.<\/p>\n
It was until three years ago that Liden\u2019s coworker told him about Crater of Diamonds State Park, located in Arkansas, that he could possibly mine a raw diamond and create an engagement ring for his girlfriend of two years, Desirae.<\/p>\n
He watched videos of those who were successful in finding diamonds at the park and built as much information as he could before deciding to plan his trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when I started really planning the trip and planning to actually go out and do this \u2013 finding out it was possible to actually do it \u2013 so I started doing research on diamonds,\u201d Liden told CNN.<\/p>\n
When planning the trip, his girlfriend knew he was going on a road trip, but she didn\u2019t know the real reason behind it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told her we would be visiting some state parks and some national parks, but other than that, she didn\u2019t know we were going to find gemstones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When Liden and his friend Josh arrived in Arkansas, they began digging. They were unsuccessful for two days of being in Arkansas and tried a different approach to just mine the surface of the gravel.<\/p>\n
When he flipped his tool towards the end of the day, he saw a yellow diamond weighing over two carats.<\/p>\n