This Traveler Found a 2.3-carat Diamond at the Only U.S. State Park That Lets You Dig for Diamonds

In a state park that lets you dig for diamonds, you never know what you might find.

At least that was the case for Micherre Fox. She traveled from New York to Arkansas to spend a month at Crater of Diamonds State Park, one of the only places in the U.S. that produces diamonds and lets visitors search for them. Fox was hoping to find a diamond for her engagement ring when she arrived in Arkansas on July 8. However, it wasn’t until her last day searching that she got lucky.

While walking along the West Drain of the park on July 29, she spotted something shiny at her feet, and realized the glistening object was a stone. It seemed clear to her that it was probably a diamond. She brought the stone to the Diamond Discovery Center and it was confirmed that what she had found was a white diamond that weighed 2.3 carats.

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"Having never seen an actual diamond in my hands, I didn’t know for sure, but it was the most 'diamond-y diamond’ I had seen,” Fox told Arkansas State Parks. “I got on my knees and cried, then started laughing."

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A sign for the historic Strawn-Wagner found diamond at the State Park.

Since the first diamonds were discovered in the area in 1906, over 75,000 diamonds have been found at the Crater of Diamonds State Park. Diamonds can come in all colors, though the three most common colors found at the Arkansas park are white, brown, and yellow.

The park is also where the largest diamond in the United States wad discovered. It was uncovered in 1924 during a mining operation on the land that later became Crater of Diamonds State Park. The diamond was white with a pink cast, and weighed 40.23 carats before it was cut down to a 12.42 carat emerald-shaped stone. It currently resides in the Smithsonian’s gem collection at the National Museum of Natural History.

Many visitors who find diamonds at the Crater of Diamonds State Park choose to name them, and Fox has decided to call hers the Fox-Ballou Diamond, after her and her partner's last names, and will use it in her engagement ring as she had hoped.

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As of August 2025, there have been 366 diamonds found and registered at the park in 2025, and 11 have weighed more than one carat. Fox’s find is the third-largest diamond found at the park thus far this year.

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