It is known that Native Americans in what is now the eastern United States developed techniques to bake (or steam) clams, at least in Florida.

[2] Author Andrew W. German concluded, "There is no question that Native American peoples have been consuming clams for four thousand years but there is little evidence that they prepared them in the traditional New England way.

Perhaps they smoked them for preservation, and they probably roasted them in open fires, but neither oral traditions nor early European observations refer to steaming in rockweed.

Consciously based on indigenous foods, it was developed in the United States after the American Revolution as a part of a created mythology as an "icon of its unique cultural identity".

[2] After the Civil War, railroads began carrying fresh Atlantic seafood on ice from New York through Pennsylvania, Ohio and on to Chicago.

[4] The Cleveland Plain Dealer published an article on October 15, 1866, called "Great Clam Bake at Camp Gilbert: A 'Running Account' Of It".

"[4] In 1888, a group of Quakers in Dartmouth, Massachusetts held a clambake, which became a traditional annual event each August that continues today.

A layer of wet seaweed is placed over the stones, followed by traditional regional foods such as steamers, mussels, quahogs, and lobsters.

A typical clambake there includes a dozen clams with half a chicken, sweet potatoes, corn, and other side dishes.

[4] The 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical Carousel featured a song called "A Real Nice Clambake".

Many of these details were incorporated into Hammerstein's lyrics, including describing lapping up chowder "with a clamshell, tied onto a bayberry stick.