The Rise and Fall of Arkansas’s Pearling Industry
Old Independence Regional Museum is giving many of its exhibits new life. The Depression-Era Back Porch exhibit is currently being transformed into a Fishing Shack. We have oral and written histories on fishing, shelling, pearling, and button manufacturing along with a collection of artifacts to showcase in the J. K. Southerland Gallery. Leading up to its opening, our curator Alan Bufford has been researching the pearling industry. Below is a synopsis of the interesting facts he discovered through his research.
For every 700 shells opened, one pearl emerged, and it was almost always imperfect.
Some resembled the ends of frozen icicles while others were ruddy or bumpy. The most sought-after pearls were sea green, peach pink, and dazzling white.
- 1897: Dr. J. H. Myers of Black Rock discovers a pink pearl in a Black River mussel. Thus begins the “Arkansas Klondike”; $11,000 is earned selling pearls.
- 1901: pearls sell for well over $1000. A farmer from Independence County sells a single pearl and uses the proceeds to purchase a team of mules.
- 1902: $370,000 is earned selling pearls.
- 1911: Batesville Daily Guard article titled “Arkansas Leads” publishes a story with a line stating, “More pearls are found in the rivers of Arkansas than any other state in the Union, many of them selling as high as $10,000 each.”
- 1913: Batesville Daily Guard wedding announcement: “The jewels worn by the bride [Nora Weaver] consisted of a pearl necklace, made from White River pearls, and in connection with this a pearl ring, a gift of the groom [Clarence McIntosh] was also worn as a combination to a set of pearl jewels.”
- 1914: News accounts tell of depleted pearl supply.
- 1915: Batesville Daily Guard article explains the decline in pearls due to “…growing scarcity of mussels…to the low price of American pearls since the European war.” Pearls are worth less than half their former value.
- 1915: Batesville Daily Guard article touts the importance of a new industry along the White River: pearl button manufacturing.
- 1966: James McDougal creates the White River Mussel Association to revive shelling, this time to create “starter seeds” for cultured pearl production. His plan fails in our area, but a form of seeding oysters is still in use in pearl farming.
While McDougal did not prosper on this idea, it is still widely utilized, especially in Japan. Processing shells for the creation of cultured pearls requires the following steps.
- Shave the shell into strips (generally 12 strips per shell)
- Cut the strips into cubes
- Round the edges of the cubes
- Continue rounding the cubes into small balls
- Implant the balls into the oyster
- Wait 3-5 years for a pearl to develop
Of 1000 oysters embedded with a starter seed, only 500 survive. Of that 500, fewer than 25 produce ideal pearls.
When the starter seeds are covered in layer after layer of nacre, a substance the oyster emits to coat the offending seed in its shell, a cultured pearl is created.
Thank you, Alan, for finding this information for our exhibit! Your assistance is always appreciated.
