Crater of Diamonds park searches for former plant

Crater of Diamonds State Park has started a historical project to find workers or relatives of workers who worked at the Martin Plant, which was on the property that is now the state park.

Crater of Diamonds State Park has started a historical project to find workers who were employed by the Martin Plant, a commercial industry for processing diamonds.

The mining plant was on the property that is now Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro, Ark.

The park has photos of workers, and Jenks is attempting to determine the names of those employees.

The history of the diamond mine explains why commercial mining stopped.

"With the Great Depression of the 1930s, commercial mining ended, because at that time, jewelry was the only use for diamonds," Jenks said.

However, in the late 1920s, the drill bit industry started to use hand set diamonds in tungsten carbide drills.

"By 1940, about 25 firms used diamonds in grinding and cutting tools, and in 1941, at the beginning of World War II, diamonds were declared a strategic mineral by the U.S. government," Jenks said.

"The attempts to again begin commercial mining at the Arkansas diamond mine mirrored the trend toward industrial uses. First, the mine owners tried to interest the U.S. government in funding renewed diamond mining in Arkansas. Then, they tried to interest the Ford Motor Co. in the diamond mine. Both of those attempts failed, but in 1945, the mine owners contacted Glenn L. Martin, owner of the Martin Aircraft Co., and this time they found an interested party," she said.

Glenn L. Martin established one of the first airplane-building companies in the U.S. He was born in Kansas in 1886 and always loved things that flew, first manufacturing box kites on his mother's kitchen table.

By age 18, he owned a Ford dealership in California. With the help of his auto mechanics, he soon began building his own airplanes. He quickly became an early barnstormer flying his own planes.

He even appeared as a pilot in a movie starring Mary Pickford called "A Girl of Yesterday."

After an unsuccessful partnership with the Wright Brothers, Martin established Martin Aircraft Co., first in Cleveland, Ohio, and then Baltimore. The company became famous for designing and building the bombers that were essential to the war effort.

After a three-year struggle to organize the Diamond Corporation of America, Martin's employees began building the Martin Plant on April 1, 1948. The first 40 yards of ore were processed Sept. 27-28, 1948.

The final building cost was $170,000. During the next year of operation, the plant processed 80,000 cubic yards of ore. It recovered 800 diamonds, weighing a total of 246 carats.

Only 10 were gem-quality, the largest a 4.5 carat stone. The appraised total value of $984.50 was not enough to cover the $10,000 it cost to run the plant for on month.

From: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/dec/29/crater-diamonds-park-searches-former-plant/