Fairport Biological Station

Inscription

Fairport Biological Station was authorized by Congress in 1908 to support the nationally-significant pearl button industry centered in Muscatine. The station opened formally in 1914. It was founded to research and propagate the rapidly-declining mussel population that provided raw material to produce buttons. Scientists also studied mussel-fish relations as each mussel species used particular fish hosts for the first 14 days of their lives. The pearl button industry was founded in Muscatine in 1891, and supported 60 companies in the county by 1900. The industry peaked in 1916, when the U.S. produced more than 40 million buttons, most in Muscatine, using shells harvested from distant beds.

By 1905 mussel beds near Muscatine were depleted due to overharvesting. Button company owners purchased 60 acres near Fairport and donated the land to the government in exchange for construction of the research station. While meeting some success in Iowa, mussel research was moved to Texas which offered freezeless winters. After studies at this location ceased in 1933, the site was transitioned to a fish hatchery that has been operated by the Iowa DNR since 1974.

Erected in 2021 in commemoration of Iowa’s 175th anniversary of statehood by
the Friends of the Fairport Fish Hatchery and the State Historical Society of Iowa
with funding from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation.