OzarksWatch Magazine

06/17/2022

Our upcoming issue of OzarksWatch Magazine features a foraging bear that was selected for inclusion in the 2022 Watercolor USA exhibit at the Springfield Art Museum. Kudos to artist Madison Woods.

You can catch the Watercolor USA exhibit at the museum through August.

03/31/2022

Hot off the press, our newest issue explores the Ozarks in motion pictures.

Subscribe: ozarkswatch.missouristate.edu

A new issue of the popular general periodical called OzarksWatch Magazine has been published. It explores the depiction of the Ozarks over the years in motion pictures. Articles in this issue focus on Pearl White, an actress from the silent movie era best remembered for the Perils of Pauline series....

01/06/2022

Dr. Flanders was an integral member of the group that founded the Center for Ozark Studies, now called the Ozarks Studies Institute. He also played an instrumental role in the launch of OzarksWatch Magazine 35 years ago.

Dr. Robert Flanders, emeritus professor of History at Missouri State University, died last month at the age of 91. In addition to being excellent in the areas of teaching, research, and service for 27 years at SMS/MSU, Dr. Flanders also was an integral member of the group that founded the Center for...

07/19/2021

Our latest issue is hot off the press. Get your fix of Ozarks history and culture by subscribing at ozarkswatch.missouristate.edu/.

12/10/2020

Thank you all for your patience. The Fall/Winter issue has been sent to the printer and should be out January 2021.

02/20/2020

The 14th Annual Ozarks Symposium isn't until September 17-19. But boy do I have an exciting teaser for you all. I'm ecstatic to announce that Kaitlyn McConnell, founder of Ozarks Alive, will be our keynote speaker! Mark your calendars for her talk at 5:30pm on Friday, Sept. 18. More details to come! www.ozarksalive.com

01/06/2020

“Chronicling the Ozarks” is the theme for our spring, 2020 issue of OzarksWatch – but we need your help. We are going to focus on the Why and How people chronicle our beautiful region, but we also would like to take a look at the Who.
Help us compile a list of the Chroniclers of the Ozarks. We will begin with the big three: Henry Schoolcraft, Harold Bell Wright, and Vance Randolph, but there are hundreds more. Probably we can never gather a complete list, but with your help we’d like to try. Send us your suggestions for the chroniclers of the Ozarks, via this website or to Managing Editor Susan Croce Kelly at [email protected], and we will publish a compilation of what we get in the spring issue.
Image description:
Five men and one woman outside of the Crane Farmers Exchange building with gas pumps out front. Signs read 'USL Batteries, Crane Farmers Exchange,' '1909 Luscombe,' and 'Crane Farmers Exchange.' The Crane Farmer's Exchange began in 1920. From the Oscar W. Carter Collection Special Collections and Archives Missouri State University

10/31/2019

The Fall/Winter 2019 issue is here. Subscribers should be getting theirs in the mail by this weekend. Don't miss out. Subscribe today!

10/17/2019

The next issue is at the printer and will go out around the end of the month. Subscribe now to get your issue on "All Our Watery Wealth"

10/04/2019

“Chronicling the Ozarks” is the theme for our Spring 2020 issue. We are focusing on the why and how people chronicle our beautiful region, but we also want to look at who has chronicled the Ozarks. We will start with Henry Schoolcraft, Harold Bell Wright, and Vance Randolph. Comment who you think should be included in a list of Chroniclers of the Ozarks.

06/05/2019

Today is National Moonshine day so here is an image from page 27 of the Spring/Summer 2019 issue

“When the going was rough my Pa was a farmer, and a trader and a moonshiner. It was a very common thing in the mornin' to go out on the front porch and set on the steps. One mornin' we counted as much as seven smokes from moonshiners. Back then good whiskey would run you about $10 a gallon. So the job was to get that whiskey made and get it to the market as soon as possible. People was all hard up then and just 'bout everybody was a foolin' in it. West Plains was the main market for it. So we had an old Model T Ford, 1919 model, so we'd load that up with moonshine in fruit jars and take it to West Plains…So one time we took a bunch in and the law got after us. But they kept off an' we got out and got away. Had awful good law back then they'd come around your place a lookin' for liquor, but he'd always give you word ahead of time becus'n he wanted to win the next election…“
From an interview with Dale Grisham of Dora, Missouri, in “Horse Thieves and Moonshine,” by Brian Schnurbusch and Kenneth Foster, The Ridgerunner Magazine, West Plains High School, West Plains, MO 65775, Fall 1985, page 29.

05/09/2019

The Spring/Summer 2019 issue has been sent to the printer. Temperance, Prohibition, & Moonshine is the theme. You should be seeing it in stores and your mailboxes in a couple of weeks.

04/05/2019

In this segmet of These Ozarks Hills, storyteller and Ozarks native Marideth Sisco is on her way back from a cousin's funeral, where she was reminded of

02/08/2019

As a follow-up to our Schoolcraft issue from last spring: 200 years ago Schoolcraft had just finished his journey in the Ozarks and left us his valuable journal.

Henry Schoolcraft's journal provides a valuable look at the Ozarks' natural resources in the past.

01/07/2019

Our next issue is taking shape-a broad look at very interesting times, but not necessarily happy ones. Temperance, prohibition, moonshine and spirituous liquors in the Ozarks. Stay tuned!

12/24/2018

Celebrate along with Red Foley and the gang in Uncle Cyps barn on the Ozark Jubilee Christmas Eve edition from December 24, 1955
Segment 1 https://youtu.be/4AGJAF_j4mM
Segment 2 https://youtu.be/v3Tz6Qwfh68

The Ozark Jubilee was a live, nationally broadcast country-western variety show originating from the Jewell Theater -- “the heart of the Ozarks” -- in downto...

11/22/2018

Happy Thanksgiving

11/15/2018

Just arrived from the printer. Hope you all enjoy the latest issue.