A pearl is a hard, glistening gemstone produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. 

Just like the shell, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate (mainly aragonite or a mixture of aragonite and calcite) in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The most valuable pearls occur spontaneously in the wild, but these are extremely rare. These wild pearls are referred to as natural pearls. Cultured or farmed pearls, though having the same material as natural ones, are formed with human intervention and they make up 95% of pearls currently on the market.

Pearls have been found in Native American artifacts. However, it wasn’t until 1857 when a New Jersey carpenter found a pink pearl in Notch Brook, near Patterson, New Jersey, that pearl prospecting or the “pearl rush” really began here. Pearls were found around the 1900’s in southwestern Wisconsin and in the Illinois River and Wabash River. The first important pearl was found in the White River in Arkansas in 1888 and soon after pearl harvesting began in Bald Knob, Cypress Bayou, and in the Black, St. Francis, and Cache Rivers.

By 1908 midwestern streams were producing nearly $500,000 in pearls annually, mostly from tributaries of the Mississippi River. Unfortunately, intensive fishing depleted the sources, pollution and waste contaminated the waters, and the Japanese figured out how to make cultured pearls, depressing the demand for pearls.

In 1878 many pearls were found in Little Miami River in southwestern Ohio. Many of the pink Ohio river pearls found in the Little Miami and its tributaries were of the most beautiful rose-petal pink; pearls of this peculiar color have never been found in any other waters.

During the years between 1882 and 1914, beautiful pearls were taken from many of the Tennessee’s streams, from the Pigeon and Holston in the east to the Forked Deer and Obion in the west. The Caney Fork in Middle Tennessee was also noted for its pearl-bearing mussels. Pearl was officially designated Tennessee’s state gem in 1979.

Natural saltwater pearls have been found in Hawaii, Florida and California. In Florida and California saltwater pearls are mostly conch pearls and some abalone. Some black pearls have also been found in California.

Compared to the rest of the world, North America has an extremely diverse molluscan fauna. Among the 1,000 known species, approximately 300 are found in North America, with the highest concentration in the southeastern United States. Since the odds of finding a natural pearl are outrageously low (less than 1 in 10,000), a tremendous number of mussels is necessary to support a natural pearl industry. Natural pearls are rarely found in the U.S. anymore.

John Latendresse, founder of the American Pearl Company, was the pioneer who brought pearl culturing to the United States and first successfully harvested pearl crops here. In 1984 the Latendresse family harvested their first crop of American freshwater cultured pearls from their Birdsong Creek pearl farm in Camden, Tennessee. In 2000 the Birdsong Creek pearl farm was sold to its current owner. Today’s operation includes a pearl museum, an active small-scale pearl farm, a pearl jewelry showroom, a boat dock, and a resort. It remains the only active pearl farm in North America.