TTHN Ep 12 - A Pearl of a Story

Freshwater pearls may not be the first thing that comes to mind when people think about Tennessee history…but for decades, Tennessee rivers were at the center of one of the most unusual industries in America.

Long before cultured pearls became common in jewelry stores, rivers across Tennessee produced natural freshwater pearls inside native mussels. By the late 1800s, the state found itself in the middle of a full-blown “Pearl Rush,” especially along the Clinch River near Clinton, Tennessee. Pearl hunters waded the rivers barefoot searching for mussels, brail boats dragged the river bottoms, and buyers traveled from New York City to East Tennessee to purchase pearls for the jewelry trade.

But pearls were only part of the story.

The shells themselves became enormously valuable for the manufacture of mother-of-pearl buttons before plastics transformed the industry after World War II. Eventually, Tennessee mussel shells became even more important internationally as the primary source of nuclei used in cultured pearls around the world.

But like many Tennessee stories, this one didn’t simply end.

It adapted.

Today, the Tennessee River Freshwater Pearl Museum and Farm near Camden preserves the legacy of this unusual industry while continuing the only freshwater pearl culturing operation in North America.

This is the story of rivers, mussels, pearls, aquaculture, environmental change, and one of Tennessee’s most surprising hidden industries.

Key Sources

February 27, 2026 interview with Bob Keast, owner of Birdsong Resort and Marina and the Tennessee River Freshwater Pearl Museum and Farm

Fred Ward, “The Pearl,” National Geographic, August 1985

Gemological Institute of America — “Freshwater Pearling in Tennessee”

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency — Freshwater Mussels in Tennessee resources and conservation materials

Tennessee River Freshwater Pearl Museum and Birdsong Resort historical and educational materials

Tennessee Blue Book — Tennessee State Gem materials

McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture freshwater mussel exhibit resources

Historical marker archives concerning “The Market Place of Pearls” in Clinton, Tennessee

Appalachian History — “A Pearl Rush Grips Clinch River Residents”

WKRN Hidden Tennessee feature on the Tennessee River Freshwater Pearl Farm

On-site research and field observations conducted at the Tennessee River Freshwater Pearl Museum and Birdsong Marina and Resort

Credits

Hosted by Big John Summers
Produced by Summers Media Enterprises

Foley/Sound effect recordings by Big John Summers

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Tennessee History Nerd. This is a podcast dedicated to Tennessee's past. Every week we bring you a new story about the people, places, and events that have shaped Tennessee and made it and us who and what we are. So grab your favorite beverage, find a comfortable place, and sit back and enjoy. If you travel westward across Middle Tennessee on Interstate 40, you'll eventually reach the Tennessee River. Because the Tennessee is a navigable river, the Tall Veg principle applies, which means that the channel of the river, roughly its middle, is a border. In this case, it marks the border between Humphreys and Benton counties, and also the border between Middle and West Tennessee. And as you climb up the grade, approaching exit 133 after crossing the river, you'll see what are those brown interstate signs that mark a local attraction, in this case for the Tennessee River Freshwater Pearl Museum. Since the late 1970s, there's been a unique form of aquaculture at the Birdsong Marina and Resort. There in the slough, right off of Birdsong Road, where Birdsong Creek enters into the Kentucky Lake section of the Tennessee River, a farm, unlike any other in Tennessee, exists. There, rows of PBC pipe float on top of the water, what owner Bob Keist calls Tennessee bamboo. Suspended beneath those pipes are wire baskets of mussels, native Tennessee molluscs, which have been implanted with small bits of material, then placed in those baskets and left to grow in the nutrient-rich waters of the Tennessee River for six to eight years. In due time, those mussels will be retrieved, harvested, and inside those mussels, that implanted material called nuclei will have transformed into freshwater pearls. How such an operation came to exist in that particular place on the Tennessee River is an interesting story, but it doesn't start there. It starts in East Tennessee in the 1800s, goes dormant in the 1930s, and then resumes and detours through the Mie Prefecture in Japan before ending up in this rural river resort near Camden, Tennessee. And all these stops along the way tell the story of how the freshwater pearl became the official gemstone of Tennessee in 1979. No one really knows how long mussels have been important to humans living near the waters of various Tennessee rivers. Certainly the Native Americans recognized their importance, but for them, the mussels were a source of food. They were meat. The pearls inside would have been more or less incidental to them. Perhaps some of them were kept as trinkets or for decorative purposes, but the mussels primarily were viewed by the indigenous people as sustenance. Amazingly, there are over 100 species of freshwater molluscs that are native to Tennessee. Only Alabama has a greater number of native mussel species. European settlers and their descendants were less inclined to view the mussels as a food source, although undoubtedly some ate them if they were hungry enough. But a lot of the species of freshwater mussels are fairly tough. One description I saw was a river creature attempting to imitate boot leather, and they're not considered as tasty as their saltwater cousins, the oyster. But if they weren't using the mussels for food, what those people did need were buttons. And ironically, the pearls themselves weren't what people used from the freshwater mussels first. It was their shells. And those shells were a source of material for making buttons. It's hard for us to imagine a world without plastic today. For example, I'm working on a laptop and a hard plastic case connected to a monitor with a plastic frame, typing on a plastic keyboard, and navigating around the screen using a plastic mouse. And I'm sipping on a beverage contained in a plastic bottle. Plastic is everywhere, including most of the buttons we use nowadays. But before World War II, even though plastic was already available in some applications, it was not as broadly used as it became during the war. And that was true with buttons as well. But buttons existed long before pearl buttons began to be manufactured in a large way in the United States in the late 1800s. Many of those were made of metals such as brass or from wood. But in 1887, a German pearl button maker by the name of J. F. Beppel came to the United States. He quickly concluded that there was a tremendous supply of freshwater mussel shells available from which these could be made and that they would maintain their luster and survive laundering. So in the late 1800s, buttons began also to be made of mother of pearl from the freshwater mussel shells. Circular discs would be cut out of the shells, and the iridescent interior would become the front of the button. These became hugely popular, especially for ladies' garments. In 1912, nearly 200 plants in the United States were using freshwater mussels for the creation of buttons. Of course, not every muscle would have a pearl in it, but they all had that shiny iridescent interior to the shell, and so a much larger percentage of the mussels harvested could be used from the standpoint of button creation than for finding pearls. This fact may have contributed to the delay in recognizing that there were gems inside some of those mussels. But eventually the public began to catch on to the idea that inside these freshwater mussels, one might be able to find freshwater pearls. And so by the mid-1890s, the rivers in East Tennessee were ground zero for the pearl rush. Summer Sunday afternoons would find pearl hunters in rivers all around East Tennessee as pearling became a recreational activity for many folks. The Pigeon River, the Caney Fork, and others were all noted as places where such mussels could be found, but none had the notoriety that the Clinch River near Clinton had. In fact, Clinton became a hub for the sale of freshwater pearls. It had a noted marketplace where this took place, and buyers would make the trip from New York City to buy such pearls for jewelers back in the Empire State. Additionally, the 1900 Paris Exposition, a type of World's Fair, featured Clinch River freshwater pearls in the United States exhibit. The demand became such that some built special boats for harvesting the mussels. The technique used to harvest the mussels was called brailing, and thus the boats for this technique were called braille boats. The crews of these boats often lived on them. They would use long poles from which hung clusters of hooks called brails. Those brails were lowered to the river bottom and muscles would reflexively clamp shut on the hooks. The harvester would then simply pull the brailles back up with the muscles attached. They basically caught themselves as a reflex response. One of the noted historical figures in Clinton from this period was a man by the name of Joseph Gossett. Gossett had gone blind due to malaria. However, he was noted for his ability as a pearl hunter, walking the rivers barefoot and using his toes to feel for the muscles. Particularly notable was his capacity for grating pearls by touch, being able accurately to rate the size and quality of his finds, and his sister helped him by describing the subtleties of the color of the pearls to him. The heyday of the freshwater pearl trade in Clinton lasted a little over 40 years from about 1895 until 1936. And then it all crashed thanks to the TVA. In the 1930s, the country was in the throes of the Great Depression. People were looking for jobs. Some of the rivers in the South had already begun being dammed by private enterprise as early as the early 1900s. Hailsbar Dam on the Tennessee River, Great Falls Dam at the confluence of the Collins and Caney Fork Rivers, Nolachuckkee Dam on the Nolachucky River, and others were already producing electricity. The Hailsbar Dam, in spite of its problems with leakage, some said as much water went under the dam as through the turbines, nevertheless had tamed the narrows on the Tennessee River that had previously made navigation downriver from Chattanooga both difficult and dangerous. So, in the 1930s, as one of the provisions of FDR's New Deal, the Tennessee Valley Authority was created. In addition to basically nationalizing the dams already created, it launched an incredibly ambitious plan to dam a significant number of rivers across Tennessee and other areas. The goals of this were flood control, ensuring navigability of the major rivers and the production of hydroelectric power. The first such dam to be constructed under the new TVA was Norris Dam on the Clinch River. Shortly after that, Melton Hill Dam would also be constructed on the Clinch River. There's always a cost for any change that man makes, regardless of how beneficial the changes may be. In the case of the Norris and Melton Hill dams, one of the costs was the freshwater pearl trade. It isn't coincidental that the Norris Dam opened in 1936 and the pearl trade in Clinton pretty well collapsed the same year. The muscles require a certain consistent range of temperature, adequate water flow, and proper nutrients in order to thrive. The dam systems made the water run consistently cooler than previously. The mussels that had previously thrived in the Clinch River environment were no longer able to do so. They declined rapidly, and so did the pearl industry in East Tennessee. For nearly 50 years, it seemed that the pearl industry was dead in Tennessee. And perhaps from the perspective of natural pearls from wild mussels, it was and still is. But as sometimes happens, the rescue comes through an unexpected direction and in an unexpected way. And in this case, the rescue came through aquaculture. And the traditions, culture, and knowledge for that aquaculture would come from halfway around the world. In the late 1800s, a Japanese visionary by the name of Kakichi Mikimoto perfected the technique of implanting freshwater mollusks with material to induce them to create pearls. Such was the level of his success that even today Mikimoto is considered a national hero in Japan. During World War II, a boy who grew up in Benton County, Tennessee by the name of John Latondris served in the U.S. Armed Forces in Japan. While there, he met and married his wife Chessie, who is from Japan. And together they brought this technique that was perfected in the Mie Prefecture of Japan by Kikichi Mikimoto back to the United States. They searched all over the United States for the right place to put such an operation in North America. At one point, there were a handful of places where operations were being attempted, but ultimately the one that was successful and that is continued was established at the Birdsong Marina and Resort, located in Benton County, where the Birdsong Creek enters the Tennessee River, which since the late 1940s has been impounded by the TVA as Kentucky Lake. So ironically, the same organization that destroyed the pearl industry in East Tennessee created the conditions where it could be successful in West Tennessee. Just as ironically, after searching all over North America for the ideal location for his freshwater pearl operation, John Latondris finally located it about five miles from where he had grown up. In the late 1970s, Latondres approached Bob Keist's father with a business proposal. He wanted to establish the pearl farm in the Slough on Kentucky Lake, where the Keistes' business, the Birdsong Marina and Resort, are located. Bob's dad wasn't convinced at first, but Bob's mom and his wife were for the venture, and so in 1979, the pearl farm was located there, and the first mussels were implanted and hung in the nets below that Tennessee bamboo of the PVC frames. In 1985, the first successful harvest occurred. Latondris had been buying the occasional pearl from fishermen along the river for a number of years. But generally speaking, the freshwater pearl industry was pretty much dormant for the decades between the opening of Norris Dam in 1936 and that first harvest in 1985. That first harvest of the implanted mussels from those nets marked the resumption of the freshwater pearl industry in Tennessee. It had lain dormant for nearly 50 years, but now it was back. And that resumption was notable. Latondras's success was the focus of a sweeping National Geographic article by Fred Ward entitled The Pearl in August 1985. And not only was the Tennessee freshwater pearl industry back, it was Tennessee mussels that had been providing the majority of the nuclei in all culture pearls in the world, not just freshwater pearls. Latondres told Ward, quote, I sell 60 to 65% of all shells used for those cultured pearl nuclei, end quote. John said, quote, it's kind of satisfying walking anywhere in the world, looking at a woman and knowing that most of the necklace she's wearing came from right here, end quote. The bulk of those Tennessee mussels are a species known as the washboard mussel. Latondris elaborated, quote, the washboard alone is 50% or more of the business, and here's the reason, end quote. As he held up an open shell, he noted the thickness of it between his thumb and forefinger. Quote, see how thick this part is? Nearly an inch near the hinge. No others in the world have such a composition and thickness. End quote. So the Tennessee mussels are not only the source of the Tennessee cultured freshwater pearls, they also provide the nuclei, what the Japanese call the koku for the majority of all pearls, both freshwater and salt water, produced throughout the rest of the world. It's exciting to realize that our state has had such an important, if relatively unknown, role to play in the pearl industry. But there are still challenges that remain. The freshwater mussels in Tennessee website from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, TWRA, notes that, quote, of the nearly 300 recorded species of freshwater mussels in the United States, approximately 130 are or were known to occur within the political boundaries of Tennessee. The mussel fauna of North America exhibits the greatest variety of species in the world and is concentrated mainly in the southeast. Except for Alabama, the lakes, streams, and rivers of Tennessee once harbored the most diverse and abundant assemblage of these molluscs known in historic times. But with the settlement of land by European explorers and pioneers came lumbering of the forests, clearing and intensive farming activities, strip mining, industry, and construction of power dams. All of these factors, along with other related practices such as channelization of numerous rivers and the commercial exploitation of mussel shell, brought about major reductions in species distribution and abundance, local extirpation, and in at least a dozen cases, extinction, end quote. So what was seen as an endless supply of mussels in the late 1800s when J.F. Beppel came to America from Germany and began to harvest mussels for making buttons is now a tiny fraction of its historic level. Per the TWRA, quote, this decline is continuing at an alarming rate. Many mussel species are now considered endangered or threatened. Some have populations limited to only one or two sites. Forty-two species known from Tennessee are currently on the federal endangered list. Several species are already extinct. Judging from the growing number listed as endangered, others may soon follow. Additionally, the waters of the United States, including Tennessee, are now dealing with invasive species of molluscs as well. One such species is the zebra mussel. Per the TWRA, these are, quote, native to parts of Western Russia near the Caspian Sea. They entered North America through the release of ballast water from shipping vessels traveling from Europe. By the 1900s, within the United States, they could be found throughout the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, and its major tributaries, including the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. They also compete with the native aquatic life for plankton, which is an important food source for young fish, native mussels, and other aquatic organisms. A single adult zebra mussel has the ability to filter large amounts of water, up to one liter per day. That may not sound like much, but that's one mollusk that rarely exceeds an inch and a half in size. And the TWRA site goes on to say quote, the economic impact of zebra mussels can be extreme due to their need to attach to hard surfaces and the ability to layer upon themselves. Industrial water intake structures are prime locations for attachment, causing reductions in pumping capabilities and even blockages. However, as of right now, the only instance of a freshwater pearl operation in all of North America is at birdsong. That unique singularity is both a distinction and a concern. It's certainly a matter of pride to be able to say, yeah, we have the only such business anywhere on the continent. But if aquaculture is to provide the avenue of hope for our native species that it possibly could, there must be a path forward for that to expand. John Latondris passed away in 2000. At that time, his wife Chessie and the others of the family sold the pearl farm to Bob Keist, the owner of Birdsong Marina and Resort, while maintaining the gym business itself. In recent years, no new mussels have been implanted with nuclei, but instead they're continuing to use the stock of those they already have. So what at one time was about five acres of muscle stock has now diminished to about a quarter acre. Nevertheless, Keist notes that the Tennessee River Freshwater Pearl Museum currently ranks about 25th of all tourist-related businesses in the state. So business is still good. In 1985, John Latondris revived the Tennessee freshwater pearl industry with aquaculture imported from Japan. One can only hope that for the sake of the endangered species of mussels that we have today, another opportunity for the industry will arise to provide a means of perpetuating them.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

So this is actually a Japanese custom. So when I was over there in Mickey Moto's Island and I was in his museum and talking to a lot of folks, they know this region earmarked as the Mississippi River drainage. This is where it all happens. So all the minerals and the nutrients. So theoretically, I could be on the top row of Nealin Stadium and put a note in a bottle and cork it and throw it off the edge into the Tennessee River, and it would end up in New Orleans sooner or later. Okay? And the same way with uh the Mississippi, you could be up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the beginning of the Mississippi River is, and actually you can walk across it, and water won't get over your kneecap. And then you get down to New Orleans and it's what, 20, 30 miles wide. So the mighty Mississippi is really our major seaport area. You know, New Orleans is pretty huge for seaport.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

And uh when we have been surpassed by Mobile.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

By Mobile, that's right. And during Katrina, what was that in 05 uh when New Orleans was shut down in Mobile? Memphis, Tennessee, became the largest seaport in America. And here they had even manatees coming up the Mississippi to Memphis. And I know a lot of the animal rights people got a hold of the uh manatees to try to keep them alive there in Memphis. And Memphis is only 133 miles to the to the uh west of us, right here in Camden, here in Benton County. So the drainage, back to the drainage, and all of the minerals and the nutrients from erosion, let's just use erosion, all end up into the Mississippi from one point or another, okay? That's why we have good clean nutrient water, and that's why these mussels grow so well here on Kentucky Lake, uh, because of the nutrients that they're getting that they couldn't get anywhere else.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

I think it's interesting when you, you know, you were talking earlier about the TVA creating Kentucky Lake in the mid-40s, and when they impounded that that that ultimately is what created the set of circumstances, I believe, where you are able to have your farm here the way it is, that it will, you know, you had the nutrients already, but it it it changed the temperature of the water. And and the reason I'm I bring that up is you mentioned starting with the Norris Dam, and when we go back, you know, the the freshwater pearls in Tennessee in the 1800s, late 1800s through 1936 is when it all ended. And it ended right there in Clinton because they opened Norris Dam and it changed the temperature of the water there where the mollusks didn't thrive the way that they had previously.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

They need a certain temperature, right? Certain amount of nutrients, and and they need flow. Flow, current. Let's call it just current. Okay. So old stagnant water with green moss growing on it is not any good for mollusks to grow. And these mollusks were back before TVA, they would just appear all over uh because they went with all the current. Right. We had flooding. They, you know, uh none of us really remember, or I don't, at 75, I don't know what a flood is other than high water.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

When TVA gives us more water than what we really need. But we've been pretty well protected over the years with elevation. You know, unlike um other bodies of water, TVA has controlled, and that's flooding, okay. And I remember reading about FDR in in the 30s before TVA, and cities like St. Louis and Memphis would be flooded, okay? Flooded. Uh, you know, we get natural, we get tornadoes and and uh ice storms, and that's most recent.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

Uh wouldn't know anything about that, would you?

SPEAKER_01 28:57

Wouldn't would not know anything about the flooding because there was no control. There was no control. Right. And they do a TVA does a real good job. Uh I was fortunate last year to go into the TVA headquarters, and it's kind of like going into the war room of the White House. I mean, it's very strict.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

And there's all the cameras and so that's going to do it for episode 12, A Pearl of a Story. I hope that you've enjoyed this journey across the state as we've considered what seems to be a relatively unknown story in our state: the history of the freshwater pearl industry. I hope you'll join us next week as we begin our county spotlights. We'll be doing those in alphabetical order every other week, and we'll continue until we have finished all 95 counties, starting with Anderson County. I hope you'll join us next week for that. But until then, I'm Big John Summers, the Tennessee History Nerd, and I am history. So, as is our normal practice here at the Tennessee History Nerd, before we sign off completely for this episode, I want to take a moment to acknowledge all the sources that contributed to what we presented today. First of all, special attention in the research for this episode was given to a February 27, 2026 interview with Bob Keist, owner of Birdsong Resort and Marina and the Tennessee River Freshwater Pearl Museum in Camden, Tennessee. Mr. Keist provided extensive historical background and firsthand insight into the history of freshwater pearl culturing in Tennessee, the legacy of John and Chesse Latondres, the operation of the modern pearl farm, the Tennessee River system, and the continuing role of freshwater mussels and cultured pearls in the region today. And also additional source material and historical reference information for this episode came from the Tennessee River Freshwater Pearl Museum and Birdsong Resort educational materials, including museum tour packets, historical exhibits, pearl culturing educational materials, and interpretive displays concerning the history of freshwater pearling and muscling in Tennessee. Additionally, the August 1985 National Geographic article by Fred Ward provided a great deal of insight into the early success of the aquacultural operation started by John and Chessie LaTondres. Research and ecological background for this episode came from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency materials concerning freshwater mussel biology, conservation, mussel harvesting, endangered species protection, invasive zebra mussels, and the environmental impact of dams, pollution, habitat loss, and commercial shell exploitation on Tennessee's freshwater mussel populations. Historical information concerning the Clinch River Pearl Rush, the Tennessee pearl industry, rail boats, pearl hunters, pearl trading centers, and the decline of the East Tennessee pearl industry following the TVA dam construction came from historical marker archives, newspaper features, and regional history sources, including material concerning Clinton, Tennessee's marketplace of pearls. Additional research and contextual information came from the Gemological Institute of America's extensive study freshwater pearling in Tennessee, including material relating to the Tennessee pearl rush, button industry, commercial muscle harvesting, the Japanese cultured pearl trade, braille boats, shell divers, freshwater pearl culturing, conservation efforts, and the continuing legacy of the Latondres family and Birdsong Creek Pearl Farm. Additional contextual information was also drawn from the Tennessee Blue Book, the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture's Freshwater Mussel exhibit materials, WKRN's Hidden Tennessee feature on the Tennessee River Freshwater Pearl Farm, and additional publicly available historical and educational resources relating to Tennessee freshwater pearls, mussels, aquaculture, conservation, and the history of the Tennessee River pearl industry. I think it's important to recognize that what we do with these episodes is made possible by the research and documentation already provided by folks like these. And we couldn't do what we do without the extensive work they've already done. So I'm very thankful for them, and I encourage you to check them out whenever you're able. And thanks so much for listening.