For early Powhatan, the Black River was a source of life and a connection to the outside world. Originating in Missouri north of Johnson's Shut-Ins, it flows south into the White River at Jacksonport. Powhatan was the northernmost point on the river where steamboats could land all year round, giving local people a direct connection with large shipping ports such as New Orleans, St. Loius, and Pittsburg and allowing the purchase and sale of a large assortment of goods. The river also provided a convenient way to transport cut timber, with logs floated downstream in rafts, hauled out on carts, and taken to the sawmill. Freshwater mussels abounded in the Black River, and when an especially large pearl was discovered in 1897, a pearl rush began; pearling camps appeared up and down the banks, and demand for mussel shell buttons kept the pearling industry alive into the 20th century. River life also brought constant danger from floods, and some buildings today are built on stilts to escape water damage.