"A Pearl of A Tour"
Area Tour To Be Featured In WLJT West TN Journal

CAMDEN, TN – Dave Hinman, host of West Tennessee Journal on WLJT-TV/DT, and production crew participated in "A Pearl of a Tour" May 18, 2005. The PBS-affiliate station’s Dave Hinman takes viewers across West TN for a look at the interesting places, personalities, and activities that make our region a great place to live.

The show featuring the Tennessee River Freshwater Pearl Museum, Farm and Tour will air twice. The first time will be Friday, June 17 at 8:00 p.m. with the second time being on Friday, June 24 at 8:30 p.m. The segment will be an informative collection including "A Pearl of a Tour," Horse and Plow Days and Rainbow Reading Stories.

"A Pearl of a Tour" runs out of the Tennessee River Freshwater Pearl Museum, Farm, and Jewelry Showroom and is hosted by Birdsong Resort, Marina and Campground in Camden. The 58-acre recreational complex is situated in the heart of Kentucky Lake at Exit 133 off I-40.

Walk-in visitors may enjoy the brief video presentation, museum, jewelry showroom, and farm seven days a week. Guided tours require advance reservations and operate Monday – Friday, April through November. The three to five hour guided journey through the history of pearls; the history of the only freshwater pearl-culturing operation in North America and its founder, John Latendresse; and an overview of the process from nucleation to finished gem stone.

Tourists visit with a local diver as he emerges from the water, tosses his bag of mussels on the dock and spills his "catch of the day;" get a brief biology lesson about how the mollusks fit in the aquaculture of the river waters; meet the farm manager; watch as he treks into the farm, retrieving a nucleated basket of the mussels and returns to "shuck" one – revealing the State of Tennessee official gem – the freshwater pearl.

Catered barbecue ribs, pulled-pork barbecue, gilled chicken and the fixin’s await at the lakeside pavilion for a leisurely luncheon overlooking the pearl farm. Shop from the freshwater pearl jewelry showroom that features freshwater pearls from all over the world. Trek to Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park’s Tennessee River Folk Life Museum where they house an antique musseling brail boat, artifacts from the pearl buttoning factories that were once abundantly along the banks of the Tennessee River, and many other exhibits relating to the diving industry, the Civil War history of Pilot Knob, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and the general area.

Horse and Plow Day is an annual event sponsored by Royston Chrysler – Plymouth - Dodge – Jeep - Eagle in Morristown, Tennessee. Ritter Farms will host the 2005 event on September 3 with Ricky Skaggs stealing the headline. Other events throughout the day include an antique tractor show, plowing demonstrations, wagon tours of the farm, barbecue, and bluegrass music. Ritter Farms offers a complete "Back to the Farm Concert Series" with entertainment booked weekly throughout the summer. Concession proceeds directly benefit the 2005 American Cancer Society Relay for Life fund-raising event. For more information about Horse and Plow Day, and more dates on the "Back to the Farm Concert Series," visit www.RitterFarms.com.

Reading Rainbow is a children's television series whose prime objective is to help beginning readers fall in love with good literature – especially picture books. The Reading Rainbow series’ objective is to involve and motivate children to read good literature for themselves. For more information about Reading Rainbow visit www.ReadingRainbow.com.

For more information about the Tennessee River Freshwater Pearl Museum, Farm, Tour and Jewelry Showroom, visit www.TennesseeRiverPearls.com or call 731-584-7880. For more information about Birdsong, Resort, Marina and Campground, visit www.BirdsongResort.com or call 731-584-7880. Reservations/Tours call 800-225-7469.