Clams

Last night my master naturalist group had a class on mussels of the Saint Croix River. This scenic river holds the record for the most mussel diversity on our planet. We learned it is illegal to take any mussels from this river. Some mussels are endangered and others are plentiful. The button industry of a century ago nearly wiped out most of the mussels in the state. In some rivers you can still find mussel shells with round holes punched out. Ironically the man who developed the technique of making buttons out of mussel shells stepped on a mussel shell named "heel splitter" and died of an infection from that injury. That is karma for you.