A New York woman discovered a 2.3-carat diamond at Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park, which she plans to use in her engagement ring.Micherre Fox, 31, reportedly traveled from New York to Arkansas for her engagement ring, according to the Arkansas State Parks. She spent roughly a month at the Park, one of the few public diamond sites where visitors can hunt for gems themselves.“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 was quoted as saying by the park service, reported NBC News. The diamond is said to be of 2.30 carats and is colourless with a round shape. It is reportedly the third-largest diamond found in the park this year.“I was willing to go anywhere in the world to make that happen,” Fox said as quoted by the state park. “I researched, and it turned out that the only place in the world to do it was right in our backyard, in Arkansas!” he added.Fox arrived at the park on July 8 and spent almost every day of her three-week visit searching for diamonds. On her last day of search, July 29, she noticed a sparkle in the park’s 37.5-acre search area. Initially mistaking it for a dew-covered spiderweb, she realized the shine persisted and picked up the gem. The staff at the Diamond Discovery Center then confirmed it was a diamond. “After all the research, there’s luck and there’s hard work,” Fox said, as per ABC News. “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!”Over 350 diamonds have been discovered at the park so far this year, including Fox’s gem, which she named the Fox-Ballou Diamond after her and her partner’s surname.Crater of Diamonds State Park sits atop the eroded surface of a volcanic crater, giving visitors the chance to find rocks, minerals, and gemstones, the park said, as quoted by USA Today.The largest ever diamond found at the property was in 1924, called the “Uncle Sam,” which is part of the Smithsonian’s mineral and gem collection at the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC.
