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Mussels Freshwater mussels are a food resource early inhabitants of the La Crosse area would have harvested from the main or side channels of the Mississippi River. Some refuse pits found at local sites have contained more than a thousand mussel shells. A few of these pits have shells tightly packed, unmixed with other debris, and are believed to be caches of shells intended to be burned and ground to "temper" clay in the manufacture of pottery containers. One of the features at the Pammel Creek site contained a high number of matched pairs of mussel shells.  This would indicate that they were deposited shortly after being harvested, since the ligament that joins the halves dries relatively quickly once the mussels are removed from the water. Pictured is a cluster of freshwater mussels being excavated from the Pammel Creek site located south of La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Link to video Mussels in the Upper Midwest by Dr. James Theler