Plate 1. Stockton Lake, Warsaw, Missouri. October 30, 2007.

“Developer Joshua Heston explains, ‘I grew up with books like the Foxfire Series and magazines like National Georgraphic. I fell in love with the Ozarks back in the 1990s but there really was not online information about the area — at least not the kind of information I was looking for.

“‘It is time people started focusing on the web for this type of information. The intenet is seen as high-tech but it is really just a great communication medium. This type of information — culture and history and heritage — is something we should celebrate and preserve. I am just glad the idea has been so well-received.’

“‘I hope we get to be the Wikipedia of the Ozarks,’ says Heston. ‘But more importantly, I hope people visit State of the Ozarks to be reminded that we have an amazing culture made up of amazing people; that we still have a beautiful region here; that despite the economic issues and crime and concerns we face, there is still a lot of good in this world.’”