My grandmother worked in a button factory in Muskegon, Michigan, to support her family during hard times. From all reports, it was toxic, noxious work when buttons started to be made out of plastic. But that was the new and divergent way, back in the late 1930s. Before that...it was something else entirely.

The reason buttons were made in West Michigan at all has to do with freshwater clams. They're rare these days for a reason. And it's not all zebra mussels. A different invasive species wiped out the bivalves of old.

I've recently started to be fascinated with clams and mussels. They're quiet, unassuming creatures that keep to their own. And when they disappear or endure massive assault, not a lot of people seem to hear them scream. But they're out there, they're critical to their environments, and they're now just barely clinging to life.

Back in the early 1900s, freshwater clams were prized for their thick, tough shells and their occasional pearls. And by 1908 clammers were raking the river bottoms of West Michigan, collecting 60,000 tons of clams annually. It was an insanely lucrative industry at the time...and there were no regulations dictating how much could be harvested. Anyway...if there was, it would have been ignored.