The Ozarks region-spanning parts of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma-overflows with visible fragments of the past. A Living History of the Ozarks is a guide to the region through landmarks and sites which offer clues to its intriguing history. This splendorous land inspired Phyllis Rossiter, a native of the Ozarks, to write about the area to help people learn to appreciate its beauty and to recognize our dependence upon nature. "I feel that it's important to safeguard what we have left," says Rossiter. "In my writing, if I can help achieve that, then that's what I want to do-to help people acquire an appreciation for nature." Abounding with sparkling lakes and rivers (including the great Lake of the Ozarks), clear blue springs, rugged mountains, ancient caves, and windswept prairies, the Ozarks are a visitor's wonderland of natural beauty and legendary mystique. Author Phyllis Rossiter explores the major areas that make up the storied Ozarks. The Lake of the Ozarks region, the Springfield plateau, Ozark mountain country, the Buffalo National River, White River Hills, and the Big Spring region are all covered in depth. A detailed appendix lists places to view ongoing history such as caves and rock formations, Indian artifacts, bridges and ferries, gristmills, Civil War monuments, heritage crafts, mountain music, hiking trails, floatable rivers, national parks, and more. Offering keen insight on the area's history, as well as a complete guide to the sites and scenic spots of this popular American vacation destination, this book is a marvelous documentation of "living history" for tourists and interested area residents alike. Phyllis Rossiter resides in Gainesville, Missouri, where she is an active writer, photographer, conservationist, and lecturer. She is a member of the Missouri Writers Guild, the Ozarks Writers League, the Society of Children's Book Writers, and the Outdoor Writers of America.

Describes the Ozark Mountains region in Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, discusses the history and culture of the region, and identifies points of interest in each area

Winner of the Missouri History Book Award, from the State Historical Society of Missouri Winner of the Arkansiana Award, from the Arkansas Library Association Geologic forces raised the Ozarks. Myth enshrouds these hills. Human beings shaped them and were shaped by them. The Ozarks reflect the epic tableau of the American people—the native Osage and would-be colonial conquerors, the determined settlers and on-the-make speculators, the endless labors of hardscrabble farmers and capitalism of visionary entrepreneurs. The Old Ozarks is the first volume of a monumental three-part history of the region and its inhabitants. Brooks Blevins begins in deep prehistory, charting how these highlands of granite, dolomite, and limestone came to exist. From there he turns to the political and economic motivations behind the eagerness of many peoples to possess the Ozarks. Blevins places these early proto-Ozarkers within the context of larger American history and the economic, social, and political forces that drove it forward. But he also tells the varied and colorful human stories that fill the region's storied past—and contribute to the powerful myths and misunderstandings that even today distort our views of the Ozarks' places and people. A sweeping history in the grand tradition, A History of the Ozarks, Volume 1: The Old Ozarks is essential reading for anyone who cares about the highland heart of America.

Published just days before America’s entry into World War II, Ozark Country is Otto Ernest Rayburn’s love letter to his adopted region. One of several chronicles of the Ozarks that garnered national attention during the Depression and war years, when many Americans craved stories about people and places seemingly untouched by the difficulties of the times, Rayburn’s colorful tour takes readers from the fictional village of Woodville into the backcountry of a region teeming with storytellers, ballad singers, superstitions, and home remedies. Rayburn’s tales—fantastical, fun, and unapologetically romantic—portray a world that had already nearly disappeared by the time they were written. Yet Rayburn’s depiction of the Ozarks resonates with notions of the region that have persisted in the American consciousness ever since.

"The Ozark Mountains reach into Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, forming a region with great natural beauty and a distinctive cultural and historical landscape. This comprehensive volume, a fully updated edition of a beloved classic, reaches into history, anthropology, economics, and geography to explore the complex relationships between the Ozarks' people and land through times of profound change. Drawing on more than thirty years of research, field observations, and interviews, Rafferty examines this subject matter through a range of topics: the settlement patterns and material cultures of Native Americans, French, Scotch-Irish, Germans, Italians, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians in the region; population growth; the guerrilla warfare and battles of the Civil War; the cultural transformations wrought by railroads, roads, mass media, and modern communication systems; the discovery, development, and decline of the great mining districts; the various forms of agriculture and the felling of the region's vast forests; and the built landscape, from log cabins to Victorian mansions to strip malls. This new edition also explores the new and potent forces which have reshaped the region over the last twenty years: tourism and the growing service industry, suburbanization, rapid population growth and retirement living, and agribusiness. Lavishly illustrated with historic and contemporary photographs, maps, and charts."--Publisher's description.

"Vance Randolph was perfectly constituted for his role as the chronicler of Ozark folkways. As a self-described "hack writer," who first visited the region as a child with his middle-class parents, he was as much a figure of the margins as his chosen subjects. And his essentially romantic identification with the Ozarks--encouraged by the editors of the era--was always tempered by his scientific training and his contrarian nature. In The Ozarks, originally published in 1931, we have Randolph's first book-length portrait of the people he would spend the next half-century studying. The full range of Randolph's interests--in language, in hunting and fishing, in folksongs and play parties, in moonshining--is on view in this book that made his name; forever after he was "Mr. Ozark," the region's preeminent expert who would, in collection after collection, enlarge and deepen his debut effort. With a new introduction by Robert Cochran, The Ozarks , an image shaper in its day, a cultural artifact for decades to come, this wonderful book is as entertaining as ever." --Back cover.

The Ozark Mountains in Missouri and Arkansas have had a long history of foraging since indigenous tribes such as the Osage, Quapaw, and Kickapoo sporadically inhabited the area and utilized the rich natural resources. Settlers from the Appalachians came later and survived on what they could find, trap, and hunt. Foraging remains a major activity among the Ozarks’ outdoor community, supported in large part by established local restaurateurs and other buyers of wild herbs, berries, and nuts. Foraging the Ozarks, written by local wilderness expert Bo Brown, highlights about a hundred commonly found edibles in the Interior Highlands, from ubiquitous herbs to endemic species. With sidebars, recipes, helpful tips, and toxin warnings throughout, Foraging the Ozarks is the only guidebook the Ozark outdoor enthusiast will need to pick it, cook it, and eat it.

In the first comprehensive social history of the Arkansas Ozarks from the early 19th century through the end of the 20th century, Blevins examines settlement patterns, farming, economics, class, and tourism. He also explores the development of conflicting images of the Ozarks as a timeless arcadia peopled by quaint, homespun characters or a backward region filled with hillbillies.

Traces the history and development of the Lake of the Ozarks region from the building of the Bagnell Dam in 1929 through the growth of the towns in the region in the 1950's.

Down in the Holler, first published in 1953, is a classic study of Ozark folklore. The University of Oklahoma Press is especially pleased to introduce such an invaluable and delightfully written book to a new generation of researchers and Americans entranced by the Ozarks and the folkways of the past. Until World War II the backwoodsmen living in the Ozark Mountains of southern Missouri, northern Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma were the most deliberately "unprogressive" people in the United States. The descendants of pioneers from the southern Appalachians, they changed their way of life very little during the whole span of the nineteenth century and were able to preserve their customs and traditions in an age of industrialism. When the many attractions of the Ozarks were discovered by "outlanders," the tourists--and television--reached the hinterlands, and the old patterns of speech and life began to fade. In this perceptive book, Vance Randolph, who first visited the Ozarks country in 1899, and his collaborator, George P. Wilson, recapture the speech of the people who lived "down in the holler." Randolph, closely identified with the region for many years, hunted possums with its people and shared their table at the House of Lords (a "kind of tavern" in Joplin). Through the years his hobby became a profession, and he spent years recording the various aspects of Ozark folk speech.