Missouri State University Ozarks Studies

06/11/2020

Tailor-made for the pandemic -- an online course on all things Ozarks. Tell your friends and kin.

31/08/2020

Society for the History of Medicine and Health Professions

The next presentation in the Society's “Stay-at-Home” lecture series is scheduled for Thursday, September 3rd, from 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm. Jared Phillips, PhD, Instructor with the International Studies program in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas, will present "Mountain Midwives: Midwifery Practice and Culture in the Arkansas Ozarks."

While birthing with a midwife was once the norm throughout America—and the Ozarks—such practices were largely abandoned as medical practitioners “professionalized” during the mid-twentieth century. As a result, by the 1960s the use of midwives and home birth in Arkansas was denounced as an unsafe folkway that only poor and remote communities like the Ozarks maintained. Despite such claims, communities in the hill country and beyond kept these skills alive, providing justification for the legalization of midwifery in the state in the 1980s.

This is the tenth presentation in the Society's Stay-at-Home Lecture series. The direct link for next Thursday's presentation is: https://zoom.us/j/97223974167. We hope you'll be able to join us and Dr. Phillips for this presentation.

27/01/2020

Flippin's Wood dies; founded Ranger Boats

An Ozarks legend passed from the scene a few days ago. https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2020/jan/26/flippin-s-wood-dies-founded-ranger-boat/

Forrest L. Wood of Flippin, an eponymous figure in fishing, boating and conservation, died Friday in Flippin after a brief illness. He was 86.

19/12/2019

Our Missouri Podcast Episodes | The State Historical Society of Missouri

Lots of Ozarks history in this series from the Our Missouri Podcast: https://shsmo.org/our-missouri/episodes

Episode 24: William Monks & "A History of Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas" – John Bradbury Today's episode concludes our multi-part series on "The Ozarks." Sure, you think you know about the Ozarks. The home of Branson, the Baldknobbers, and the Beverly Hillbillies…right? Well, in this s...

07/12/2019

How to Kill Rural Arkansas

A timely critique from Jared Phillips. Is it too early to dub him the "Wendell Berry of the Ozarks"? https://www.agriculture.com/farm-management/programs-and-policies/how-to-kill-rural-arkansas

In 1978, there were 2,366 dairy farms in the Arkansas Ozarks. By 2017 that had plummeted to 35, a 99% drop.

02/12/2019

Shannon County: Home | OPT Documentaries

It may get older, but it never gets old. https://www.pbs.org/video/opt-documentaries-shannon-county-home/

This unique portrait pays tribute to the history and culture of Shannon County, Missouri.

27/11/2019

Vance Randolph Slept Here - Shiloh Museum of Ozark History

A little Ozarks sleuthing, courtesy of Shiloh Museum's Carolyn Reno. https://shilohmuseum.org/vance-randolph-slept-here/?fbclid=IwAR29fFUaTCjfbwijPEi0v5aVSpTufQpzv4auOdq1AUxGCUUg7mblaZTWx60

In 1968 the Shiloh Museum was given a guest register from Springdale's Southern Hotel. Joe Robinson, a Springdale businessman and a founding board member of the Shiloh Museum, recovered

21/11/2019

Join Dr. Brooks Blevins for a discussion of the Civil War era in the Ozarks on Saturday, November 23, at 2:00 at the Harlin Museum in West Plains.

20/11/2019

Learn "How to Talk Ozark in Seven Simple Steps" with MSU's Dr. Brooks Blevins at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, November 21, at Springfield's Redeemer Lutheran Church, 2852 S. Dayton Ave. Free and open to the public.

20/11/2019

'Passport To The Ozarks' Guidebook Highlights Top Regional Destinations

Kaitlyn McConnell discusses her new book on St. Louis public radio: https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/passport-ozarks-guidebook-highlights-top-regional-destinations?fbclid=IwAR0UFNpY1vPcQ1hn7W-ZsdYqFHsf7Pj_lzIUWsGIMyyz1lFx3d0lvzwjlQk

The Ozark region has modernized slowly over time, and that’s allowed for the preservation of its traditional culture. To help shed light on what the region

14/11/2019

MSU's Dr. Brooks Blevins will be discussing and signing his new book on the Civil War era in the Ozarks this Saturday, Nov. 16: at the Shiloh Museum in Springdale at 2:00 and at Nightbird Books in Fayetteville at 6:00.

10/11/2019

Missouri State University Department of History

Free and open to the public! Don't miss out!

02/11/2019

MSU's Dr. Brooks Blevins will be at the Crisp Museum in Cape Girardeau on Saturday, November 9, at 2:00 to discuss "The Old Ozarks: The Mountains and Their Myths." Free and open to the public.

24/10/2019

Time for another round of Intro to Ozarks Studies online. Tell all your kinfolk.

22/10/2019

Pie suppers: A sweet piece of Ozarks history | Ozarks Alive

Another good'n. https://www.ozarksalive.com/pie-suppers-a-sweet-piece-of-ozarks-history/?fbclid=IwAR0nhQieVVRIROSnMLPJ4b7IUTUmbEVK7sKON-Y2vYi8mP3khdEmHGcXNiU

A pie supper at Pine Top school, on the Missouri-Arkansas border, is shown in years gone by. (Courtesy of “These Were the Last”) Some Ozarks traditions are similar to the thick cover of fog that envelops its hills and hollers on dewy days. Snuggling like a blanket, the white cover lingers as lon...

21/10/2019

Ozarks Alive

Here’s a sneak peek: “Passport to the Ozarks,” a guide to 61 unique places to visit in southwest Missouri (and a couple bonus stops in Arkansas) will be available VERY soon. Watch for a link to preorder the book this week!

19/10/2019

Preserving the Ozarks: Curtis Copeland | Ozarks Alive

One Ozarker introduces us to another. Few people have done more to highlight and preserve Ozarks culture in recent years than Curtis Copeland and Kaitlyn McConnell. The alliteration is just an added bonus. https://www.ozarksalive.com/preserving-the-ozarks-curtis-copeland/?fbclid=IwAR1lu1Br5bDlPr7OrK5OVDNWp46eE-kRE2651NVIuG6ES-e6WstHYO229Tc

Curtis Copeland is a Geographic Information Systems coordinator for the City of Branson, and helped revive the Society of Ozarkian Hillcrofters. (Courtesy of Curtis Copeland) Ozarks native Curtis Copeland has spent years of his life sharing, storytelling and sending people through the Ozarks. Some o...

19/10/2019

The Best Nonfiction Crime Books of October

A look at Larry E. Wood's new book on a true crime story in the 19th-century Ozarks, "Bigamy and Bloodshed." It's the last review on the page. https://crimereads.com/the-best-nonfiction-crime-books-of-october/?fbclid=IwAR1ep2rYV4KfpzI21QbO2Vn23y1mdGMRuDZPXq4lVMGfeZu2hVEC4gB_O80

These are boom days for writers and readers looking for thoughtful, hard-hitting stories about real-life crime. Whether you’re in the mood for a high-octane page-turner, an investigation, or a pene…

18/10/2019

Stop by the Donald W. Reynolds Library in Mountain Home at 2:00 on Sunday afternoon, the 20th, to discuss the long Civil War era in the Ozarks with Dr. Brooks Blevins.

16/10/2019

Co-founder of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils passed away at 73

The Chicken Train has left the station. Farewell to an Ozarks legend. https://www.ozarksfirst.com/local-news/co-founder-of-the-ozark-mountian-daredevils-passed-away-at-73/

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A founding member of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils has passed away in Springfield at the age of 73. According to the Walnut Lawn Funeral Home, Steve Cash died Oct. 13 for r…

11/10/2019

Dr. Brooks Blevins will give his talk, "The Old Ozarks: The Mountains and Their Myths" at the Galena (MO) Library on Saturday, Oct. 12, at 2:00. It's free. Stop by.

09/10/2019

Ghost Towns of the Ozarks

Catch Kaitlyn McConnell's "Ghost Towns of the Ozarks" tomorrow evening at the Library Center in Springfield, 7:00. https://thelibrary.org/programs/program.cfm?id=442382636562&lc=c

Ozarks Alive's Kaitlyn McConnell will talk about haunted spots, old-fashioned ghost towns and others that are said to be downright haunted. An Oh, The Horror! event.

07/10/2019

Securing natural resources for the Ozarks - News - Missouri State University

Learning more all the time about prescribed burning. https://news.missouristate.edu/2019/10/01/pavlowsky/

Study looks at the interplay between fire and waterways.

07/10/2019

Chaucer of the Ozarks

An unforgettable voice of the Ozarks. https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/post/chaucer-ozarks

Explore the life and nonfiction of Donald Harington, known as "the Chaucer of the Ozarks" for his artistic and literary portrayal of the traditions and

05/10/2019

Home OIRM

If you're in the Batesville, AR area tomorrow, stop by the Old Independence Regional Museum to discuss the Civil War era in the Ozarks with Brooks Blevins, at 2:00. https://www.oirm.org/

The mission of the Old Independence Regional Museum in Batesville, Arkansas, is the acquisition and preservation of artifacts and archival materials significant to the history of Independence County, Arkansas, and the surrounding counties, making these materials available for research and providing....

05/10/2019

Opinion | In the Land of Self-Defeat

Interesting article on the small-town Ozarks, by a native of the small town. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/opinion/sunday/trump-arkansas.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

What a fight over the local library in my hometown in rural Arkansas taught me about my neighbors’ go-it-alone mythology — and Donald Trump’s unbeatable appeal.

04/10/2019

New Marker On Park Central Square Tells The Story Of Springfield Lynchings

Scroll to the bottom and take a look/listen to Emma Wilson's piece from nine years ago as well. https://www.ksmu.org/post/new-marker-park-central-square-tells-story-springfield-lynchings?fbclid=IwAR2d4-ivfkzYobF1b4zpXya-bVW7a0LcmAtO8NI9-xK-eNnPdl6djJd-PQ0

A dark day in Springfield’s history was brought to light Wednesday. A new marker on Park Central Square tells the story of three young black men who were

02/10/2019

Monsters in the Ozarks.

As we approach Halloween, here is something spooky from the EOA: The Gowrow! One of several fabulous monsters reported in Arkansas popular lore, it may owe its origins more to journalism than to traditional narrative and folk belief. The principal documentation of the creature’s existence (and reported death) is a story that appeared in the Arkansas Gazette on January 31, 1897, apparently written by Elbert Smithee. Elmer Burrus provided an illustration, allegedly based on a photograph, to accompany the piece. Read more about the creature here, if you dare... https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/gowrow-5669/

01/10/2019

Lawrence County Historical Society, Arkansas

The Lawrence County Historical Society will meet at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 20th, 2019 at the Powhatan Historic Courthouse. We will start with a short business meeting with a report from the nominating committee and will elect officers.

After the business meeting, Dr Blake Perkins, assistant professor of history and the Chair of the Department of History and Political Science at Williams Baptist University in Walnut Ridge, will present research he has conducted on merchant Peter Halderman, free blacks, and racial conflict in Smithville before the Civil War.

A War of 1812 veteran and St. Louis merchant who came to Arkansas in 1828, Peter Halderman established a thriving mercantile on the bank of the Strawberry River and eventually helped behind the scenes to found the Lawrence County-seat town of Smithville in 1837. Halderman, a slave owner when he first arrived to Arkansas, eventually emancipated his slaves and became a well known friend of local African Americans by the 1840s. Halderman had long been a successful merchant and respected citizen in the area, but as regional and national racial tensions escalated in the 1850s, he became increasingly suspect among many of his white neighbors. Halderman and several of the free blacks residing in his household fled the area for the free state of Illinois sometime after an explosive court case in 1858 involving a dispute between a local African American and a white man in Smithville, which was then followed by the state legislature's Negro Expulsion Act of 1859. Halderman, once a prosperous and respected member of his community, had become an outcast amid the nation's sectional turmoil by the middle and late 1850s.

Dr Perkins grew up on a cattle farm in Lawrence County and graduated from Lynn High School (now Hillcrest) in 2004. He earned his bachelor's degree in history from Lyon College in 2008 and a master's in history from Missouri State University in 2010. He completed his PhD in history at West Virginia University in 2014 and then returned home to north-central Arkansas. He, his wife Jodie, and their two boys, Maddox and Rylan, live in Lynn. He is the author of "Hillbilly Hellraisers: Federal Power and Populist Defiance in the Ozarks", which was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2017, and has published numerous articles on Arkansas and Southern history.

The meeting and program are free and open to the public.

http://lchsar.org

29/09/2019

Join MSU's Dr. Brooks Blevins for a book talk and signing at the Old Independence Regional Museum in Batesville, AR, on Sunday afternoon, October 6, at 2:00.

28/09/2019

Ozarks Alive | Discovering the hidden gems of the Ozarks

See the Ozarks -- before it's all gone. https://www.ozarksalive.com/

28/09/2019

Pricing rise for black walnut harvesting in the Ozarks

That time of year again. https://www.ky3.com/content/news/561373401.html

Walnut harvesting season begins October 1.

27/09/2019

The quick audio version of a baffling, twisting story.

Love a mystery? Have you got 13 minutes? Want to hear a crazy true story about an Ozarker who testified in the trial of his own murder?

"OHR Stories: Brooks Blevins’ 'Ghost of the Ozarks'" is available as a free podcast!

Stream "Ghost of the Ozarks" at...
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ohr-stories-brooks-blevins-ghost-of-the-ozarks/id1073661381?i=1000450637715

Google Play:
https://play.google.com/music/m/Dj52olpa5ingngtkxdfbfpreacm?t=OHR_Stories_Brooks_Blevins_Ghost_of_the_Ozarks-Ozark_Highlands_Radio

SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/w-bill-jones/ohr-stories-brooks-blevins-ghost-of-the-ozarks

Brooks Blevins gives a native’s view of the people, music, and colorful events that shape the Ozark region. In this episode of stories, the author and historian presents the tale of "Ghost of the Ozarks” about the infamous Connie Franklin murder trial of the 1930’s. The trial became a mysterious and worldwide spectacle involving a man who testified at the trial for his own murder.

#history #Arkansas #Ozarks #mystery #murder #truecrime

25/09/2019

Bigamy and Bloodshed - The Kent State University Press

Here's a new book on the Emma Molloy/Sarah Graham story. http://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/2019/bigamy-and-bloodshed/

In the summer of 1885, ex-convict George Graham bigamously married Cora Lee, foster daughter of nationally known temperance revivalist Emma Molloy, and the three took up residence together on the Molloy farm near Springfield, Missouri. When the body of Graham’s first wife, Sarah, was found at the ...

25/09/2019

Ozarks' History | Arkansas State University | Mountain Home, AR

Looky here. A great opportunity for folks in the Mountain Home area to learn about Ozarks history with Vincent Anderson. https://asumh.edu/pages/community-ed-class/27/ozarks-history?fbclid=IwAR0qaUMrRYQCzWXm4oA5EfxqjuO8d2Xy-tBf1YcQbdxVkRITD32O1qjMGYI

Serving students of Mountain Home and North Central Arkansas as a two-year campus of the Arkansas State University System.