Shepherd of the Hills Country: Tourism Transforms the Ozarks, 1880s-1930s / Edition 1

by Lynn Morrow, Linda Myers-Phinney

Overview

Modern tourism in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas is concentrated around the area’s glistening man-made lakes, its fish-filled streams and rivers, and the entertainment mecca of Branson. But recreational excursions into this part of the country began over one hundred years ago as urban Midwesterners, many of them captivated by Harold Bell Wright’s novel The Shepherd of the Hills, sought the outdoors for spiritual and physical regeneration.

Morrow and Myers-Phinney excavate the beginnings of commercial tourism in the region and follow it through six decades as the influx of visitors who became familiar with the Ozarks and its investment opportunities brought capital, new commerce, and additional residents to the hills. Chapters focus on float fishing, game parks, cave exploration, the influence of the railroad, and the men who were instrumental in the region’s transformation. The authors discuss traditional lifestyles rooted in “living off the land,” with stock raising and lumbering providing basic subsistence, and changes wrought by tourism, which affected all classes of people across the White River landscape. They describe the flowering of “Ozarks folklore”—how stories told around gravel-bar fishing camps and retold by newspaper journalists translated the hills’ oral tradition for mass audiences.

While the main theme of this study is the development of tourism, it is also a social history of the interior highlands of the Ozarks. We see how the residents and their way of life were discovered, exploited, and changed by new opportunities and the demands of tourism and increasing trade. As such, this book is a valuable new addition to the University of Arkansas Press’s Ozarks Collection.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781557285744
Publisher:	University of Arkansas Press
Publication date:	07/01/1999
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	294
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Lynn Morrow is director of the Local Records Preservation Program at the Missouri State Archives. He is coeditor of A Connecticut Yankee in the Missouri Ozarks: The Writings of Theodore Pease Russell (University of Missouri Press, 1988) and The White River Chronicles of S. C. Turnbo: Man and Wildlife on the Ozarks Frontier(University of Arkansas Press, 1994).

Linda Myers-Phinney is a field archivist in the Local Records Preservation Program at the Missouri State Archives. She has previously published "Arcadia in the Ozarks: The Beginnings of Tourism in Missouri's White River Country" in the spring 1990 issue of OzarksWatch.

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	ix
	Preface: "Wish You'd Find Out 'Bout That"	xi
	"To the Heart of the Ozarks": An Introduction	1
1	"Priests of Nature": Arcadia Comes to the White River Country	19
2	"The Bottomless Pit": Marble Cave	37
3	"As a Health Resort Taney Is Unequalled": The Game Park	61
4	"Cows Rather than Plows": Newcomers Join the Natives	77
5	"Nature's Own Remedy": Float Fishing and Ozark Tourism	115
6	"God's Great Natural Park": The Railroad Transforms Resorting and Commerce	147
7	"Credulity Is Contagious": Images in Arcadia and the Backwoods	191
	Notes	215
	Works Cited	253
	Index	269

Editorial Reviews

[Shepherd of the Hills Country] is a well argued discussion of the transformation of a subsistence, open-range economy into a modern economy and society. Grounded in primary sources, using oral history to great advantage, and providing sophisticated commentary on other scholarship, the work of Morrow and Myers-Phinney is a model of regional history. . . . The superb collection of photographs and maps enhances the prose.”
—Lawrence O. Christensen, Professor of History and Political Science, University of Missouri-Rolla

From the Publisher

Traces the beginnings of commercial tourism in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas through six decades that brought capital, new commerce, and additional residents to the hills. Looks at recreational activities and games parks, and investigates the influence of the railroad and the men who were instrumental in the region's transformation. Discusses traditional lifestyles and changes wrought by tourism, and describes the flowering of Ozarks folklore. The authors are affiliated with the Local Records Preservation Program at the Missouri State Archives. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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