development
of interest in certain parts of Tennessee. For many years pearls had
been secured from the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers and their
tributaries, especially Caney Fork, Duck, Calf Killer, and Elk rivers,
the headquarters of the fishery and the local markets being Carthage,
Smithville, Columbia, and Arlington. The search had been conducted in a
moderate way by pleasure parties in the summer, and by farmers after
the crops had been laid aside.
In
1901 pearling excitement developed in the mountain regions of eastern
Tennessee, especially in Clinch River. These newly-discovered resources
proved so valuable that the local interest became very great. Vivid and
picturesque accounts published in the local papers reported hundreds of
persons as camping at various points along the streams, some in tents
and some in rough shanties, and others going from shoal to shoal in
newly-built house-boats. They were described as easygoing,
pleasure-loving people, the men, women, and children working hard all
day, subsisting largely on fish caught in the same stream, and dancing
at night to the music of a banjo around the camp-fires. The center of
the new industry was Clinton, the county seat of Anderson County,
whither the successful hunters betook themselves each Saturday, the
preferred time for selling the catch.
The
next outbreak of pearling excitement was in Arkansas, in the region
referred to by Daniel Coxe two centuries ago as the location of great
pearl resources.1 Although in recent times little had been heard of pearls in Arkansas previous to 1895, *ney
were not unknown in that State. For years they had been picked up by
the fishermen, and used as lucky stones or given to the children for
playthings. Some had come into the possession of persons acquainted
with their value. About 1875, a few pearls were collected by a party of
men engaged in cutting cedar poles on White River; in 1888, a brilliant
pear-shaped pink pearl of twenty-seven grains was secured from the same
river, and sold to a prominent resident. Little had been said about
these finds, and in general the people of Arkansas had slight idea of
the occurrence or the value of pearls in those waters.
In
1895, a surveying party on White River found pearls in the Unios of
that stream, and collected them to the value of about $5000. News of
this discovery attracted attention to the resource, and other persons
sought for the gems in the White River and its tributaries, in the St.
Francis and the Arkansas rivers. The unusually low water in 1896
facilitated the fishery, and resulted in the discovery of many large
and valuable gems. The interest developed rapidly, and within twelve
months nearly every stream of water in Arkansas yielded pearls, with
the finds most extensive and valuable in White River and
1 See p. 258.
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