: [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION August 20, 2025: A previous version of this story incorrectly said Micherre Fox stayed in a cabin in the woods at the state park. It was a tent. The story also incorrectly said that Micherre traveled an hour to the closest town to find a hardware store. In fact, she traveled an hour and a half each way.]
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
All right. What would you do to find your perfect engagement ring? Well, we know what 31-year-old Micherre Fox is willing to do. She traveled from New York City to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas last month on a mission to find a diamond. Fox said she and her boyfriend thought it was important to get a ethically sourced gem for her engagement ring.
MICHERRE FOX: I was like, you know, they come from the ground. They come from the ground. What is conceptually stopping us from just getting one ourselves?
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Fox says she started dreaming about digging up her own diamond around two years ago.
FOX: Then, within a few days, I was like, we're not getting engaged until I do that.
MARTIN: Which she says her boyfriend fully supported. So when Fox had some time off after finishing grad school, she decided to stay in a tent in the woods at the state park with the only public mine in the world where people can keep the diamonds they dig up.
MARTÍNEZ: Fox's odds weren't great. Only 366 diamonds have been found and registered this year, at a park where thousands of people visit to dig.
MARTIN: Nevertheless, for three weeks straight, she dug between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. every day with just one day off to rest, sometimes in triple-digit heat.
FOX: There were days where I wouldn't shower for several days because it was just - by the time I got out, I was so tired, and I was hurting. I couldn't muster the energy to spend 10 minutes undressing and taking a shower. Like, you know, you walk out, you walk the half a mile back to the campsite, and you're just horizontal.
MARTÍNEZ: And at one point, she says her shovel was stolen, leaving her no choice but to walk about an hour and a half each way to the closest town to find a hardware store. And then, the day before she planned to leave...
FOX: I see this glimmer by my foot.
MARTÍNEZ: Fox thought that because she was in the shadows, it couldn't be mica, which only shines in the light. Then she thought, maybe it's morning dew.
FOX: So I just was like, OK, you know, I'm just going to paw at it with my hiking boot. And that'll disperse the dew drops, and then we'll be done with the whole charade. And I do that, and it doesn't go anywhere.
MARTIN: That's because it was a 2.3-carat diamond, the third-largest diamond found at Crater of Diamonds State Park this year.
FOX: It was like finishing a marathon. I just had this intense exhaustion and exuberance wash over me. And then I start laughing because it's done, and I did it.
MARTIN: We asked her what kept her going for so many weeks.
FOX: If you take giving up off the table, the only thing left is to keep moving, to keep doing the hard thing. And that - you know, I feel like almost anything is possible if you take not being able to do it off the table.
MARTIN: Now that's commitment.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DIG")
INCUBUS: (Singing) Dig me up from under what is covering... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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