Carat and stick: woman mines own diamond for engagement

A New York woman has found a 2.30-carat colorless diamond in an Arkansas state park and repurposed it as her engagement ring.

- Edward Helmore

Micherre Fox, 31, of Manhattan spent a month searching for gems in the Crater of Diamonds state park in July and came up lucky on the last day, according to Arkansas state parks.

"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 the park service.

The service said it was the third largest of 366 diamonds found in the park this year. It describes the Crater of Diamonds - a 15-hectare (37-acre), eroded surface of a volcanic crater near Murfreesboro, as "the only place in the world where the public can search for real diamonds in their original volcanic source".