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About The Ozarks:
The Ozarks (also referred to as Ozarks Mountain Country, the Ozark Mountains or the Ozark Plateau) are a physiographic, geologic, and cultural highland region of the central United States. It covers much of the south half of Missouri and an extensive portion of northwest and North central Arkansas. The region also extends westward into northeast Oklahoma and extreme southeast Kansas.

Although sometimes referred to as the Ozark Mountains, the region is actually a high and deeply dissected plateau. Geologically, the area is a broad dome around the Saint Francois Mountains. The Ozark Highlands area, covering nearly 47,000 square miles, is by far the most extensive mountainous region between the Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains. Together, the Ozarks and Ouachita Mountains form an area known as the U.S. Interior Highlands, and are sometimes referred to collectively. For example, the ecoregion called Ozark Mountain Forests includes the Ouachita Mountains, although the Arkansas River valley and the Ouachitas, both south of the Boston Mountains, are not usually considered part of the Ozarks.

The Ozarks consist of four primary physiographic sections—the Springfield Plateau, the Salem Plateau, the Saint Francois Mountains, and the Boston Mountains. Topography is mostly gently rolling, except in the Boston Mountains, along the escarpments separating the Springfield and Salem Plateaus, and the Saint Francois Range where it is rugged. Karst features such as springs, sinkholes, and caves are common in the limestones of the Springfield Plateau and abundant in the dolostone bedrock of the Salem Plateau and Boston Mountains. Missouri is known as "The Cave State" with over 6000 recorded caves (second to Tennessee); the majority of these caves are found in the Ozark counties. The Ozark Plateaus aquifer system effects groundwater movement in all areas except the igneous core of the St. Francois Mountains. Geographic features unique to the Ozarks, particularly in Missouri, include limestone and dolomite glades—grasses and forbs in shallow soil on exposed bedrock in sloping, otherwise heavily forested areas.

The Boston Mountains are the highest section of the Ozarks. Summits can reach elevations of just over 2,560 feet with valleys 500 to 1,550 feet deep. Turner Ward Knob is the highest named peak. Located in western Newton County, Arkansas, its elevation is 2,463 feet. Nearby, five unnamed peaks have elevations at or slightly above 2,560 feet.

The Saint Francois Mountain Range rises above the Ozark Plateau and is the geological core of the highland dome. The igneous and volcanic rocks of the Saint Francois Mountains are the remains of a Precambrian mountain range. The core of the range existed as an island in the Paleozoic seas. Reef complexes occur in the sedimentary layers surrounding this ancient island.

Ozark rivers and streams are typically very clear water, with baseflows sustained by many seeps and springs, and flow through forests along limestone bluffs. Gravel bars are common along shallow banks, while deep holes are found along bluffs. Except during periods of heavy rain or snowmelt – when water levels rise quite rapidly – their level of difficulty is suitable for most canoeing and tubing.

The Ozark Mountain Forests are comprised chiefly of the Ouachita and Boston Mountains, whose forests are among the best developed oak-hickory forests in the United States. The primary species here are red oak (Quercus rubra), white oak (Q. alba), and hickory (Carya spp, especially Carya texana). Shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) and eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) are important on disturbed sites, shallow soils, and south- and west-facing slopes.

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If you would like to reach me, my name is Melora and my email is melorasworld+@+gmail.com. Please remove the +'s signs. They're there to keep my email bot-free. If you would simply like to leave a comment, question, correction, concern, suggestion, etc... just visit my fanlisting thread.

Site Credits:
The header picture is of White Rock in NW Arkansas. I scanned it from the October 2008 National Geographic which had a great article on the Ozark Highland Trail: Pick it up! I made the repeating background image from a copyright free image at CGTextures.com. I built the site in Photoshop and Dreamweaver. The fonts came from dafont.com. Most of the information on this page came from Wikipedia and the WWF.org.