In the last year, MHC began exploring ways of promoting and encouraging economic development in Missouri communities through initiatives that are solidly based in good humanities content. Currently, the Council is providing support to a “heritage tourism” and “humanities resource inventory” pilot project in the northeastern part of the state. Meanwhile, other projects are developing in other areas. The following article was submitted by Matt Meacham, regarding a project he is involved with in the Missouri Ozarks region, highlighting the potential for our historical and cultural heritage to be a resource for progress.

Renewing Regional Identity: A National Heritage Area in the Missouri Ozarks?

By Matt Meacham, public folklorist, West Plains Council on the Arts

Three organizations based in West Plains have undertaken an endeavor that they hope will contribute toward renewing their regional identity and making the past a resource for the future in the Missouri Ozarks.

The West Plains Council on the Arts, Ozarks Preservation, Inc., and Ozark Action, Inc., are completing a feasibility study regarding the possibility of pursuing National Heritage Area status for much of south-central and southeast Missouri.

Initiated by the National Park Service, the National Heritage Area (NHA) program gives special recognition and support to places that have made distinctive contributions to American culture. There are now 49 NHAs, reflecting a multiplicity of themes and varying widely in size.

An organization interested in the possibility of attaining an NHA designation must consult extensively with people throughout the region under consideration to seek input as to whether the proposed NHA would have public support and, if so, what its practical goals and interpretive themes ought to be.

The organization may then produce a feasibility study report, which must be made available for public comment. If the National Park Service endorses the report, the organization then collaborates with the relevant Congressional representatives to draft legislation designating the region an NHA.

The National Park Service makes various resources available to each NHA and helps to promote its cultural assets. Decision-making about its mission and how to achieve it is conducted at the local level, however, and participation in its activities is voluntary. The program does not involve acquisition of land, and all legislation designating new NHAs states that they cannot be used as a basis for infringing property owners’ rights.

The West Plains Council on the Arts (WPCA) and Ozarks Preservation, Inc. (OPI) became interested in the possibility of pursuing National Heritage Area status approximately six years ago. WPCA has long supported the work of traditional artists and the conservation, interpretation, and public presentation of folk culture in south-central and southeast Missouri. OPI developed as an outgrowth of WPCA devoted to exploring avenues for making cultural conservation a basis for economic opportunity and economic opportunity an incentive for cultural conservation.

WPCA and OPI began to seek a sustainable source of support for their cultural conservation efforts. Representatives of WPCA and OPI attended a workshop on cultural tourism hosted by the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce, where they heard a presentation about the National Heritage Area program.

It seemed that the NHA program might provide not only a more permanent base of operations for their own cultural programming but also a means of coordinating the efforts of organizations throughout the region that contribute significantly to the conservation of its folklife but have limited resources with which to carry out and publicize their work.

WPCA and OPI recognized that the capacity to market the work of regional artists and craftspeople, locally grown foods, cultural sites and events, and related resources in a more integrated way could benefit not just themselves but the whole region and the entire state.

In 2007, they hired me to conduct field research on traditional artistic activity in five counties and write a report about its potential to serve as a basis for an NHA. They continued deliberations throughout the next two years but did not have the wherewithal to begin a feasibility study until late 2009. Recognizing the potential of an NHA to generate economic opportunity, Ozark Action, Inc., a community action agency, generously agreed to collaborate with WPCA and OPI to conduct a study with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Over the past year, representatives of the three organizations met with officials, civic and cultural groups, and individuals throughout Ripley, Wayne, Carter, Reynolds, Iron, Dent, Shannon, Oregon, Howell, Ozark, Douglas, Wright, and Texas counties to hear their views about the prospect of attaining National Heritage Area status, as well as their observations and stories about the culture of this region.

Marideth Sisco, an accomplished journalist, author, and musician who serves on WPCA’s board of directors, participated in many of these discussions.

“One of the most fascinating things is how many stories have parallels from county to county and from group to group,” she commented. “It’s astonishing how many historical experiences are common throughout the region.”

Ozark Action, Inc., hired the firm of Jeffrey L. Bruce and Company of Kansas City to compile all of the research and public input into a feasibility study report. A preliminary version of that report is in progress, and a draft will be made available for public response soon.

The report will identify three themes that reflect many of the stories and observations shared by area citizens, convey much of the essence of the region’s culture as its residents themselves understand it, and could form a basis for the proposed NHA’s interpretive efforts: 1) An Enduring Land; 2) Settlement, Self-Sufficiency, and the Quest for Security; and 3) Community Survival Through Creativity and Innovation.

“An Enduring Land” pertains to the distinctive configuration of natural resources that characterize this region – the karst topography with its caves and springs, the exceptionally clear rivers and streams, the remarkable diversity of flora and fauna, and the timber and mineral resources – both before and after human impact. Subsidiary themes associated with “An Enduring Land” include “A Geological Region of Lasting Importance,” “Extraction, Devastation, and Recovery of the Land,” and “The Conservation Ethic.”

“Settlement, Self-Sufficiency, and the Quest for Security” involves the ways in which the settlement patterns and the geographic and socio-economic isolation of the Missouri Ozarks prior to the late nineteenth century have influenced the region’s character. Ancillary themes are “Off the Path, On the River” (which addresses the Trail of Tears) and “Lawlessness in a Time of War” (specifically the Civil War, which took an especially chaotic and often brutal form in this region).

“Community Survival Through Creativity and Innovation” addresses the evolution of the region’s culture and its contributions to the nation’s culture from the late nineteenth century to the present. It encompasses three subsidiary themes: “A Culture of ‘Grittiness’,” “Folklife Traditions in an Isolated Place,” and “Sustainability as a Way of Life.”

Reflecting on times past, a resident who will be quoted in the report remarks, “Life was rough then compared to what we have today, but this was so for every family living in these Ozark hills and up and down these rivers. The stories told of events that took place can make one feel nostalgic and wish they could go back to that time. Then logic prevails and one realizes that only the good ones have been remembered. The bad ones were washed away and cleansed from memory as if by the water that runs through the Current River.”

Indeed, the persistence of many of this region’s folkways can be attributed partly to its having been economically marginalized during much of its history. When goods and services were scarce, Ozarks residents had to rely upon knowledge and skills that had been transmitted over generations, as well as ingenuity and improvisation. When formal cultural institutions and media-transmitted culture were difficult to access, they made their own art and entertainment.

The West Plains Council on the Arts, Ozarks Preservation, Inc., and Ozark Action, Inc., believe that a National Heritage Area could help to make these folkways a source of economic benefit to the region without compromising their integrity. They hope to contribute to the creation of the future out of the past – the process that folklorist Henry Glassie defines as “tradition” – and the renewal of the regional identity of the Missouri Ozarks.

Return to page one

Also in this issue: