Found a Black Pearl on the Blue River!

by Phil
(Fishers, IN)

I found this pearl whilst on a canoe trip down the Blue River near Corydon, Indiana a couple of years ago. We stopped for lunch at a bend in the river where there were freshwater mussel shells everywhere. I sat down to eat lunch and right at the waters edge, in amongst the shells was the pearl. My wife keeps telling me it can't be a pearl, but I looked at it under a microscope in the lab at work and it certainly has the characteristics of a pearl. It is about 15mm in diameter and almost jet black. It is not perfectly round - it wobbles a little if you roll it on the table!

I may have to get it valued one of these days just to put my mind at rest if it is actually a real pearl or not!