Mural in Silver Dollar City BY JOSHUA HESTON On the west wall of the unpretentious visitors’ exit of Silver Dollar City, a beautiful Kieffer mural celebrating the Ozarks in autumn can be found. Equally unpretentious in style, this work of George Kieffer is passed by tens of thousands of guests, often without a second thought.…
PLATE 1. Crazy Debbie’s Discount Fireworks take over an old building near Mount Branson on East 76. Summer Firework Art by Joshua Heston An oscillating fan turned, moving humid air from one aisle to another, cement floor smooth and a little dewy in the hot summer night. The glowing Black Cat sign competed with a…
PLATE 1. Harlan Bonar in his Knob Noster studio. A Journey of Freedom: The Art of Harlan Bonar BY JOSHUA HESTON The rolling, grass-covered hills west of Sedalia, Missouri, mark a transitional territory where the tall grass prairies converge with the northwestern Ozark Hills. The place is pastoral, but it is here — in an…
Welcome to the Ozarks by Lauren M. Weinand, M.D. Where turtles and armadillos share the cloistered roads you travel and a chorus of tree frogs lulls you to sleep Cloaked in their bewitching, boundless oaks people are kind, but kindly advise: Don’t forget, sweetie, you’re in the South Land is liberty, liberty to farm,…
Leofstan’s Last Voyage by Edwin Woolsey Mirroring his mood, the gorgeous blue sky faded to sullen gray as Leofstan trekked eastward toward Bristol. What he failed to notice… the other seamen quickly saw. The air filled the sail with a doleful omen from the sea, uncharacteristic of bright spring weather. The misty, murky gloom pursued…
Yet I remember by Lindel Gore 06:00 hours, 24, 7, Phoenix, Arizona: coffee, and toast. This is the smell that floods my mind from the time I spent with grandma (My father’s mother). I was thirteen to seventeen years old then. After bloody noses, black eyes and bruised ribs, the smell of grandmas’ toast and…
Original artwork by Curtis Copeland. Impending War by Clint Lacy Cotton was not king in the Ozarks but hard work was. The soil was not suited for farming. If it had been the planters would have bought it up and brought their slaves with them. Planting was done in small clearings. It was no easy…
Original artwork by Lydia Hoskins. Ozark Strawberries by Dale Grubaugh These Ozark Hills can sure produce some mighty fine vittles. Blackberries, dewberries, gooseberries, huckleberries and strawberries. All of these berries grow wild ’round the Ozarks. Most, except for the dewberry, have been tamed. But none have been tamed like the strawberry. The wild strawberry, sometimes…
Editor’s note: Freeman’s work contains very authentic and difficult adult themes. Above, original artwork by Tennille Blair-Neff Picture Perfect by Freeman Our entire family stands together for the last time ever All thirteen of us smiling toward the lens from in front of A red and green hollyhock hedgerow, Holding egg cartons and Easter baskets,…
Above, at left, artist Christiano Bellotti. At right, R’vyn Grega-Szabo with Christiano Bellotti. Try To Imagine by R’vyn Grega-Szabo Here… before you say “I can do that,” try to imagine crawling inside of a cave, alone, in the dark and all that can guide you to the exit is a tube lying on a floor…