Mike Polk Jr. on how Cleveland became the country's clambake capital

CLEVELAND — It's clambake season in Cleveland , and according to Food and Wine Magazine , no one does it quite like we do.

The publication reports that Clevelanders eat more clams this time of year than any other part of the country, but how did we get here? Lake Erie isn't known for its native clam population.

So how did a Midwest city become ground zero for shell-shuckin' chowder hounds every autumn?

You can thank, in part, the invention of the steam train.

Before the 1800s, clambakes were a New England coastal tradition — bags of clams, shellfish, and vegetables wrapped in seaweed and cooked over fire pits on the beach. Once railroad lines were built through Cleveland, seafood shipments from the coast would stop here to be re-iced before continuing west to Chicago.

Eventually,