With a shovel and a dream, woman finds 2.3-carat diamond on her last day at dig

By the end of her trip, Ms Micherre Fox had almost made peace with the fact that she would leave Arkansas with nothing but bug bites and tattered boots.

- Mark Walker

NEW YORK -

For three weeks, Ms Fox, who lives in New York City, had been camping at Crater of Diamonds State Park and going out to dig for gems each day.

She rose before dawn, paid the US$15 (S$19) entry fee, walked the half-mile to the fields with her battered tools, and dug, sifted and rinsed until her hands ached. She was on a mission: to find a diamond for her engagement ring.

Wake, walk, work, hope. Repeat.

On her last day there, she slept in and planned to search for an amethyst instead.

"I was coming to terms with the fact I was likely leaving without a diamond," she said.

But then, as she carried her fourth bucket of dirt to the water pool where diggers rinse their finds, she saw a glimmer in a spider web on the ground, nudging it with her boot. But what looked like glistening dew did not rub off. In fact, it was a shiny stone.

Crater of Diamonds State Park officials later confirmed: Ms Fox, 31, had found a 2.3-carat white diamond, the third-largest find in 2025. Of the 366 diamonds registered so far in 2025, only 11 weighed more than a carat.

Ms Annie Dye, a gemologist based in New York state, said that depending on the final cut, clarity, colour and carat weight, the diamond could be worth anywhere from US$10,000 to US$50,000.

The couple have yet to get it appraised, so its precise value remains unknown.