Mussel Shell

ID: 2247 ~ Source: Norbert Brown Collection, Knox County Public Library ~ Date: 2019
This file appears in: Pearl City
Mussel Shell

Many quality buttons could be drilled out of a single shell of the desired type. Many of the different types of shells had slang names that were once heard daily along the banks of the Wabash during the pearl industry's heyday.

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,…