"[62] Randolph collected Ozark folklore and lyrics in volumes such as the national bestseller Pissing in the Snow and Other Ozark Folktales (University of Illinois Press, 1976), Ozark Folksongs (University of Missouri Press, 1980), a four-volume anthology of regional songs and ballads collected in the 1920s and 1930s,[73] and Ozark Magic and Folklore (Courier Dover Publications, 1964). Okay, I thought. Buffalo Lookout, the highest point in the Ozarks, is located in the Boston Mountains. The mountains occupy an area of about 50,000 square miles (130,000 square km), of which 33,000 square miles (85,500 square km) are in Missouri, 13,000 square miles (33,700 square km) in northern Arkansas, and the remainder in southern Illinois and southeastern Kansas. [25] The Ozark region remained as a subsiding shallow carbonate shelf environment with a significant thickness of cherty dolomites such as the Jefferson City, Cotter and Powell formations.[25]. Bottom line: mountains can get taller than Mount Everest in earth gravity, like the Appalachians probably didbut not much taller. Branson, just north of the ArkansasMissouri border, is a tourist destination and popularizer of Ozark culture. The Ozarks cover a significant portion of northern Arkansas and most of the southern half of Missouri, extending from Interstate 40 in central Arkansas to Interstate 70 in central Missouri. The Ozarks contain ore deposits of lead, zinc, iron and barite. No one ever explained that. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2022. As with the Springfield Plateau, commercial timber production is limited, although small hardwood lumber mills are common, and charcoal is produced from hardwood in Yellville (Marion County). Some of these mountains, including the tallest mountain in the state of Arkansas, can be found within the Ozark National Forest. Stockton Lake was formed in 1969 by damming the Sac River near the city of Stockton, Missouri, and supplements the water supply of Springfield in nearby Greene County. Estimating that volume, geologists believe that the lowly Appalachians were once as high as the rugged Himalayas, and some now-vanished mountain in modern-day New Hampshire or North Carolina could easily have been taller than Everest is today. Photo by Janine Parry. Towns are few and generally small, including Mountainburg (Crawford County), Deer (Newton County), and Shirley (Van Buren County). We put him in touch with Steve Boss, geosciences professor. The Ozark region is known for an abundance of sparkling springs, waterfalls, lakes, caves, caverns, and sinks (also known as karstic landforms). Much of the Ozark population is of English, Scots-Irish, and German descent, and the Ozark families from which the regional culture derived[62] tend to have lived in the area since the 19th century. 479-575-6850, hyoung@uark.edu. Boston Mountains, range extending east-west for 200 miles (320 km) in northwestern Arkansas and northeastern Oklahoma, U.S. J. Blake Perkins, "Growing the Hills: The Ozarks Regional Commission and the Politics of Economic Development in the Mid-American Highlands, 1960s1970s,". The Tyson Foods corporation and ConAgra Foods each operates several hundred poultry farms and processing plants throughout the Ozarks. These areas have experienced considerable urban growth. Paleoelevationthe measuring of ancient mountainsisn't an exact science, but from clues in the rock (levels of sediment, size of wrinkly synclines and anticlines, fossils, oxygen isotopes in minerals) it's possible to guess at the altitude of mountains that aren't there anymore. [57], Tourism is the growth industry of the Ozarks as evidenced by the growth of the Branson, Missouri, entertainment center celebrating traditional Ozark culture. Thomas Foti I started to explain this to my 13-year-old daughter. [11] Missouri is known as "The Cave State" with over 7,300 recorded caves, second in number only to Tennessee. The Ozark Plateau is a source of several rivers and streams. Land was also added to Ozark National Forest during this period, with over 544,000 acres (2,200km2) in total additions. Put another way, if you drilled through the Boston Mountains, you would find the rock layers of the Springfield Plateau beneath them and beneath that, the rocks of the Salem Plateau. Fish hatcheries are common due to the abundance of springs and waterways. Hunt, ABF, and Prime, Inc. Springfield remains an operational hub for the BNSF Railway. Much of the area supports beef cattle ranching, and dairy farming is common across the area. Learn how and when to remove this template message, Eleven Point National Wild and Scenic River, "Why Isn't 'Arkansas' Pronounced Like 'Kansas'? Ouachita Mountains - Encyclopedia of Arkansas