Woman finds engagement diamond at historic Arkansas site
Micherre Fox travelled from New York to Arkansas to find a diamond for her future engagement ring. On 29 July 2025, after three weeks of searching, she discovered a 2.30-carat white diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park, according to Arkansas State Parks.
- Micherre Fox found a 2.30-carat white diamond at Arkansas’s Crater of Diamonds State Park on 29 July 2025.
- Her three-week search ended with a surface discovery, confirmed by park staff.
- The site’s diamond discoveries date to 1906, decades before it became a state park in 1972.
Fox, then 31, had decided approximately two years earlier that she wanted to find the stone herself. Her partner, Trevor Ballou, supported the plan and agreed to wait before proposing. After completing graduate school, she used part of a month-long break to travel to the park near Murfreesboro. She arrived on 8 July and searched almost every day, having spent two weeks preparing for the trip.
The discovery came on her final day. Walking through the search area, Fox noticed something glistening on the ground. She initially thought it might be a dew-covered spiderweb, but the shine remained when she nudged it with her boot. Staff at the Diamond Discovery Center confirmed that the stone was a colourless diamond. She named it the Fox-Ballou Diamond, combining the couple’s surnames, and planned to have it set in her engagement ring.
Her search took place at a location with a much longer history of diamond hunting. Farmer John Huddleston discovered diamonds on the land in 1906, attracting prospectors and attempts at commercial mining. The 40.23-carat Uncle Sam diamond was found there in 1924. The area became a state park in 1972, preserving public access to the diamond-bearing ground. By the park’s 2025 account, more than 75,000 diamonds had been discovered at the site since Huddleston’s initial finds.
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The geological history reaches back considerably further. Explosive volcanic activity approximately 100 million years ago brought diamond-bearing material towards the surface. The diamonds themselves had formed much earlier, deep within the Earth; subsequent weathering released them from their host rock into the soil searched by visitors. Fox ultimately found her stone lying on the surface, despite weeks spent digging and searching. For her, the effort represented a willingness to meet the challenges of marriage through practical work as well as financial resources.