Imagine finding your own diamond for your engagement ring. That's exactly what one woman did after visiting an Arkansas state park. She spent several weeks mining for diamonds before finding one on the last day.
31-year-old Micherre Fox found a 2.3-carat white gem at Crater of Diamonds State Park in July. She spent three weeks searching for the centerpiece for her future engagement ring. Arkansas State Parks (ASP) shared a story about the diamond discovery. She said that her own partner agreed not to propose until she found her own diamond for the ring.
It's something that she's been searching for over the past couple of years. However, more recently she decided to visit the Arkansas state park to see if she could find a diamond in the wild.
Her Own Diamond
"I was willing to go anywhere in the world to make that happen," Fox told People. "I researched, and it turned out that the only place in the world to do it was right in our backyard, in Arkansas!"
"There's something symbolic about being able to solve problems with money, but sometimes money runs out in a marriage," she also added. "You need to be willing and able to solve those problems with hard work."
She spent three weeks at Crater of Diamonds looking for the gem. It's one of the "only diamond-producing sites in the world where the public can search for diamonds in their original volcanic source." If you find a diamond on park grounds, then it is yours to keep. That made the idea very exciting for Fox to search.
The 2.3-carat gem was as large as a tooth and is actually the third largest found this year. So far, 366 diamonds have been found at the state park.
While at Crater of Diamonds for three weeks, the park guest spent most days searching around for shiners — as the park is one of the "only diamond-producing sites in the world where the public can search for diamonds in their original volcanic source," per its website. The policy, according to the park, is "finders, keepers."
"I got on my knees and cried, then started laughing," Fox said. "When you are literally picking up the dirt in your hands, no amount of research can do that for you; no amount of education can take you all the way. It was daunting."
