12 Facts About Ozark Mountains

Ozarks, known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the US states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas.

Boston Mountains contain the highest elevations of the Ozarks, with peaks over 2,500 feet, and form some of the greatest relief of any formation between the Appalachians and Rocky Mountains.

Many Ozark Mountains waterways have their headwaters in the uplands of the Boston formation, including the Buffalo, Kings, Mulberry, Little Red and White rivers.

The igneous and volcanic rocks of the St Francois Ozark Mountains are the exposed remains of a Proterozoic mountain range hundreds of millions of years old.

The Ozark Mountains 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.

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Commercial farms and processing operations are known to raise levels of chemical and biological contaminants in Ozark Mountains streams, threatening water supplies, recreational use and endangered native species.

Grand Lake o' the Cherokee in northeast Oklahoma, on the western portion of the Ozark Mountains Plateau, was created in 1940 with the damming of the Grand River.

Missouri Ozark Mountains rivers include the Gasconade, Big Piney, and Niangua rivers in the north central region.

Much of the Ozark Mountains population is of English, Scots-Irish, and German descent, and the Ozark Mountains families from which the regional culture derived tend to have lived in the area since the 19th century.

Ozark Mountains musicians include Porter Wagoner and old-time fiddler Bob Holt.

Examples of commercial interpretations of traditional Ozark Mountains culture include the two major family theme parks in the region, Silver Dollar City and the now defunct Dogpatch USA, and the resort entertainment complex in Branson.

Traditional Ozark Mountains culture includes stories and tunes passed orally between generations through community music parties and other informal gatherings.