Why would anyone poke holes in freshwater clam shells?
Likely as not, your vacation travel adventures in months and years past have taken you to the northeastern corner of our great state. If that be the case, then you are intimately familiar with the wonder and beauty of the Oklahoma Ozarks region that is tucked into that corner of the state.
The western boundary of that ecoregion is the Neosho River. That waterway is blessed with an abundance of high-quality water … and … huge populations of freshwater clams.
In days past, plastic had not yet been invented. In its place, enterprising people turned to the natural world to source out some things that might be fashioned into shirt buttons. As surprising as it might at first seem, people used to capture the Neosho River clams and then send their shells to the factory so they might be carved into circular buttons with which to grace the front of a shirt.
It is yet one more example of how Mother Nature has come to our aid in our time of need.
Neil Garrison was the longtime naturalist at a central Oklahoma nature center. His email is atlatlgarrison@hotmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Buttons once made from freshwater clam shells from Oklahoma waterways
