Chapter 12: The Ozarks

The Ozark Plateau, also known as the Central Plateau, controls the southern half of Missouri and extends to the northern Arkansas. Its landscape is a mixture of unusual topographic features. There are shut-ins, rivers confined in a deep, narrow, water-sculpted gorge or channels, carved in the hard rocks. There are also balds which are bare mountaintops. The Ozark Plateau and the Arkansas River Valley are separated by the Ouachita and Boston mountains. Its main resource is located in the Courtois Hills where there is timber.

   The Ozarks

The term Hillbilly, a person from the backwoods or a remote mountain area, was used in the Ozarks. Hillbillies were people who were not familiar with office politics nor new models. A hillbilly had the opportunity to get closer to his God and was honest. Although most of the people who live in the Ozarks are not hillbillies, there is a stereotype about them. Hillbilly music has evolved form the Celtic and English folk songs. Nowadays, people who live a hillbilly lifestyle do so because they choose to, not because of the location where they live.