Pearl Hunter at Work

ID: 2244 ~ Source: Norbert Brown Collection, Knox County Public Library ~ Creator: Tom Jones ~ Date: 1906
This file appears in: Pearl City
Pearl Hunter at Work

The mussels would be opened in boiling water, the flesh was removed and used as fish bait or animal feed and occasionally a beautiful and valuable pearl would be found inside. The shells would be cleaned, sorted, and sold to a shell buyer for the button industry.

This file appears in: Pearl City

By Knox County Public Library
The name “Pearl City” originated sometime between 1900 and the early 1930s, when the mussel fishing industry here sparked a “pearl rush.” This stretch of the Wabash River was once filled with people, mostly squatters, who lived in tents, shanties,…