Contains up-to-date information on traveling to the Ozark Mountains and the surrounding areas, with recommendations on lodging, restaurants, regional events, family activities, entertainment, and natural landmarks.
Day hikes and overnights in the breathtaking Ozark Plateau Witness the natural majesty of the Ozarks with this complete and thorough guide to America’s most expansive and beautiful mountain ranges. Seasoned hiking expert Johnny Molloy maps out the best trails in the region, one for every level of hiker. Hikes include: Fort Smith State Park Morgan Mountain Spring Creek and Moccasin Spring Buffalo Wilderness As with all the books in the 50 Hikes series, you’ll find clear and concise directions, easy-to-follow maps, and expert tips for enjoying what each hike has to offer—whether it’s rejuvenating fresh water springs, scenic riverways, or serene glades.
This in-depth, native’s-eye view of this varied region, which sprawls from Missouri to Arkansas, gives travelers the best of the Ozarks. The Ozarks has become the destination of choice for music lovers seeking bluegrass jams or classical , foodies of all stripes looking for down-home rib shacks or 5-star cuisine, culture mavens searching out the gems of Branson, and outdoor enthusiasts gliding along lazy rivers snaking among the rolling hills which make this area so beautiful. This in-depth, native's-eye-guide to this varied region sprawling from Missouri to Arkansas will give travelers the best of the Ozarks, flavoring discriminating information with anecdotes and historical facts.
Deep in the Ozarks of Southeast Missouri a battle still raises about a massacre committed on Christmas Day, 1863 in Ripley County, Missouri by members of the 3'rd Missouri State Militia Cavalry led by Major James Wilson. While naysayers state that the "massacre" was nothing more than a rescue mission to free Union troops captured days before by Colonel Timothy Reeves and his 15th Missouri Cavalry, CSA, local historical documents, newspaper articles and military records prove bias on their part, painting a picture of a government cover up and the needless slaughter of men, women and children along with Confederate soldiers on the holiest day of the year. In this Expanded Second Edition the reader will find more photos, newspaper archives and other sources of information that paints a clearer picture of this tragedy.
Best Tent Camping: Missouri and the Ozarks by Steve Henry leads readers to 50 quiet and beautiful camping hideaways in Missouri and northwest Arkansas. In addition to scenic beauty and relaxing atmosphere, campground profiles also include tips for outdoor activities and points of interest. Best in Tent Camping Missouri and the Ozarks is unique and important simply because there's no similar printed guide available. Key Information and Campground Ratings boxes prominently displayed in each chapter make it easy for readers to scan and find a camping spot perfect for their weekend getaway. Have a history buff in your group? Several campgrounds are located near historic sites and many others were constructed by CCC companies in the 1930s. Rivers for floating, tubing, or fishing are covered too. Camping with a road biker? Several profiles recommend good road biking loops. Especially helpful is a set of "Best For..." lists in the front of the book, guiding readers to the best campgrounds for scenic beauty, families, hiking, swimming, cycling and mountain biking, canoeing, and more. Whether campers are looking for a place where they can also go fishing, hiking, or canoeing or the best sites for photography, Henry provides plenty of information to make choosing the right campsite easy. Not only does each campsite profile include a description and map, Henry has even included ratings on the beauty, privacy, spaciousness, and cleanliness of each site. Best Tent Camping: Missouri and the Ozarks makes planning your camping trip easy and enjoyable!
Scenic Driving the Ozarks features thirty-three separate drives through Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, from the homestead of Daniel Boone and the 250-foot-deep Blue Spring in the north and central sections to the prairie landscapes and the restorative hot springs of the western and southern Ozarks. An indispensable highway companion, Scenic Driving the Ozarks includes route maps and in-depth descriptions of attractions.
Scenic Routes & Byways Ozarks features thirty-three separate drives through Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, from the homestead of Daniel Boone and the 250-foot-deep Blue Spring in the north and central sections to the prairie landscapes and the restorative hot springs of the western and southern Ozarks. An indispensable highway companion, Scenic Routes & Byways Ozarks includes route maps and in-depth descriptions of attractions.
The Ozarks of the mid-1800s was a land of divisions. The uplands and its people inhabited a geographic and cultural borderland straddling Midwest and west, North and South, frontier and civilization, and secessionist and Unionist. As civil war raged across the region, neighbor turned against neighbor, unleashing a generation of animus and violence that lasted long after 1865. The second volume of Brooks Blevins's history begins with the region's distinctive relationship to slavery. Largely unsuitable for plantation farming, the Ozarks used enslaved persons on a smaller scale or, in some places, not at all. Blevins moves on to the devastating Civil War years where the dehumanizing, personal nature of Ozark conflict was made uglier by the predations of marching armies and criminal gangs. Blending personal stories with a wide narrative scope, he examines how civilians and soldiers alike experienced the war, from brutal partisan warfare to ill-advised refugee policies to women's struggles to safeguard farms and stay alive in an atmosphere of constant danger. The war stunted the region's growth, delaying the development of Ozarks society and the processes of physical, economic, and social reconstruction. More and more, striving uplanders dedicated to modernization fought an image of the Ozarks as a land of mountaineers and hillbillies hostile to the idea of progress. Yet the dawn of the twentieth century saw the uplands emerge as an increasingly uniform culture forged, for better and worse, in the tumult of a conflicted era.
"Up South in the Ozarks: Dispatches from the Margins is a collection of essays from Brooks Blevins that explore southern history and culture using [the] author's native Ozarks region as a focus. From migrant cotton pickers and fireworks peddlers to country store proprietors and shape-note gospel singers, Blevins leaves few stones unturned in his insightful journeys through a landscape 'wedged betwixt and between the South and the Midwest - and grasping for the West to boot"--
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.