Shells, bones, and coral fragments littered the landing beach that separated the protected cove from our hiking path through the salt flats and desert of Isla del Carmen. It is difficult to imagine that the type of seashell pictured above could have shaped the course of history in Baja California, yet the pearls that sometimes form within these mollusks lured explorers to this arid region long ago. Cortez first found black pearls during his attempt to start a colony at La Paz in the 1530's.
Pearling continued for years, and in the 1800's, the shells themselves were gathered to be made into buttons craved by Europeans. Overexploitation and disease are blamed for the collapse of the industry around 1940. John Steinbeck visited Baja California in 1942 and based his novel, The Pearl, on conversations with fishermen and pearl divers in the area. Pearling lies buried in the region's history, but today the opalescent mother-of-pearl from a beached oyster may still catch the eye of an island visitor.
