Flatheads and Spooneys by Jens Lund

Author:Jens Lund [Lund, Jens]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Folklore & Mythology, Sports & Recreation, Fishing, History, United States, State & Local, Midwest (IA; IL; IN; KS; MI; MN; MO; ND; NE; OH; SD; WI), Business & Economics, Industries, General, South (AL; AR; FL; GA; KY; LA; MS; NC; SC; TN; VA; WV), Social History
ISBN: 9780813184777
Google: QksoEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2021-10-21T04:21:28+00:00

A display of freshwater pearl mussels assembled fora high school science fair by Kent McDaniels, son of mother-of-pearl dealer Paul McDaniels, of Metropolis, Illinois, 1978. Top row, left to right: buckhorn, buzzard-head, rabbit’s foot, mule-ear, monkey face; second row: yellow buckhorn, butterfly, stock sand shell; third row: niggerhead, eggshell, bullhead, pimple-back, pigtow; bottom row: pocketbook, maple leaf, three-ridge, washboard.

Filter-feeding concentrates pollutants, to which most mollusk species are sensitive. Mussels are usually found in concentrations in certain areas, known as mussel beds, and the experienced musseller keeps track of their locations.

In 1990, musselling and buying shells were closed in Indiana because of a decline in numbers. Nelson Cohen speculated that several years would pass before they would be opened again. Illinois and Kentucky mussels were still being harvested in the early 1990s, and much of the Ohio Valley’s musselling was then occurring on Kentucky Lake, Lake Barkley, and a few areas on the lowest part of the Ohio River.

Cohen and his Japanese customers classify exportable shells in two grades. The first is Wabash River maple-leaf, and it consists not only of maple-leaf but also of good quality monkey-face, pistol-grip, pimpleback, and eggshell, most of them rather small but with thick shells. The second grade is the White River washboard. These large shells, occasionally reaching a foot in length, were once a prime export shell, but they have deteriorated in quality. The rest of the species are either too rare, too thin, too low in quality, or too distinctively colored to become part of the export trade. The Camden, Tennessee, exporters use a more complex system, buying niggerheads, three-ridge washboard, pigtoes, and maple-leafs separately, differentiating between Cumberland and Tennessee River washboards, and also buying a “maple leaf mix.” When shells are in high demand, Camden buyers will purchase mixed shells in two grades, “lake” and “river” (from impounded and free-flowing waters, respectively). “Lake” grade brings a higher price than river. They may also purchase, at the lowest price, reasonably good shells harvested dead or damaged, which are called “culls” or “scrap.”

Discoveries of valuable pearls led to pearl rushes many places in the Midwest, South, and Northeast during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ohio Valley pearl rushes occurred on the Clinch, Eel, Little Miami, Mississenewa, Tennessee, West Fork White, and both the upper and lower Wabash. Greatest of these was the Wabash pearl rush centered around Vincennes and Mount Carmel, from around 1900 to 1907. Its greatest year was 1905, when $320,000 in pearls and mussel shells were traded in Vincennes alone.

Button blank factories established in the Vincennes area continued to buy and process shells from elsewhere in the lower Ohio Valley on a large scale until the end of the 1920s. Wabash pearls, especially those found earlier in this century, are still said to have the finest luster and greatest value of any midwestem freshwater pearls.

The Wabash pearl still has a legendary status and trade in these jewels is centered around Vincennes. The late Granville “Granny” Palmer of Vincennes acted as

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