Take a mother-of-pearl button between your fingers and turn it over: chances are it came from here. In the early 20th century, Muscatine produced more than a billion and a half buttons a year from the freshwater mussels of the Mississippi, to the point of supplying a considerable share of the entire planet. This improbable story awaits passengers on river boats that moor along the river, barely two streets from the centre of this small Iowa town.

Landing in the Heart of Things

The American Melody and the American Serenade dock directly at the Riverfront, the landscaped promenade along the water, shaded and dotted with benches. No shuttle to wait for: downtown begins where the gangway ends. The gently sloping streets line up 19th-century brick façades, cafés, antique shops and neighbourhood restaurants. In a few minutes of walking, you grasp the town's rhythm, that of a river community still living to the tempo of barges and freight trains. Here the Mississippi makes one of its rare east-west bends, a geographic quirk residents are quietly proud of: it puts the town facing the sunset, a detail that will take on its full meaning at the end of the day.

The Button Capital

The National Pearl Button Museum tells, free of charge, how this small town became the "Pearl Button Capital of the World." You follow the whole chain: the clammers in their flat-bottomed boats, the drills that cut blanks from the shells, and the women workers who polished the buttons and sewed them onto their cards. The period machines are there, the photographs too, and the museum's volunteers gladly add their own family memories. It is the kind of small museum that turns a port call into a lesson in industrial history without ever becoming dry. You also learn the flip side: overharvesting eventually exhausted the mussel beds, plastic finished off the industry, and the river took decades to recover its mollusks, now closely monitored by biologists. Local children learn this story at school; visitors discover it in an hour that passes surprisingly quickly.

Art, the River and Mark Twain

A few streets away, the Muscatine Art Center occupies an Edwardian residence and presents surprisingly strong collections for a town this size, including works related to the great river. The Mississippi, in fact, remains the main character of the stop: Mark Twain, who worked briefly at the local newspaper in the 1850s, wrote that Muscatine's sunsets were among the most beautiful he had ever seen. The Riverfront lookout lets you check his judgment if your boat leaves in the evening.

Ideas for Filling the Afternoon

• Follow the riverside promenade to the park, where locals come to fish and watch the grain barges go by.
• Browse the downtown shops, among antiques, local crafts and old-fashioned candy.
• Have a coffee in one of the converted brick houses, chatting with people who know every boat that passes.
• For organized excursions, Pine Creek Grist Mill, a 19th-century flour mill preserved in a nearby state park, is worth the trip.

Muscatine isn't in the same league as the river's major stops, and that is exactly what makes it endearing. You go ashore without specific expectations and discover a unique industrial history, quiet streets and an intact relationship with the Mississippi. Heading back on board, many passengers slip a mother-of-pearl button bought at the museum into their pocket: a tiny souvenir, but one that sums up an entire town.