The most definitive work yet on the real Ozarks Highlands of Missouri.

An excerpt from

Ozark Highlands

National Heritage Area

Here’s what I was doing when I wasn’t flying all over the globe promoting the movie. It’s now open for public comment, let me know what you think. Read the feasibility study in it’s entirety and look at the wonderful photographs here.

–M

“The National Heritage Area (NHA) program celebrates the culture, natural beauty, recre-ational opportunities, and history of significant and distinctive regions across the United States. A portion of the Missouri Ozarks Highlands, with its remarkable landscape, history, and people, could become one of those heritage areas.

This study documents conversations, thoughts and assessments of the region, including
the landscape, residents and their combined story.”  Organized to address a variety of
criteria found in established heritage areas around the nation, this assessment concludes
with what residents want for their future and what they consider to be the most valuable
places and stories to preserve.  And, finally, this study assures local residents that they
individually select participation and what to preserve throughout their lives and the lives
of their offspring.

While many NHA’s are concerned primarily about conserving, interpreting, and preserving and existing robust historic record, high quality primary and secondary source historical documentation of the Ozarks Highlands is surprisingly limited. Much of the historical legacy rests in traditions handed down from person to person. With a sense of urgency, one resident state that, “we are one generation away from losing our stories.”

The most important and compelling question is: What is it about the land, people, history
and culture of the Ozarks Highlands that makes it nationally-significant for all Americans and a valued place for residents past and future?“