Missouri Landscape

Missouri is located in the central mid-western United States, where the northern foothills of the Osage Mountains meet the high plains of the northwestern prairies.

The ancient Ozarks rise up from the Arkansas border towards the muddy Missouri, sudden hills covered in oak and cedar and deep, dark, whippoorwill-haunted hollows. Travelling northward, the plains open around you. Now we are in the midst of gently undulating fields where weathered grey barns stand sentinel. Far to the southeast, the bootheel lies in swamp land, perched precariously on the New Madid fault while everyone prays that the Big One will not come after all.

Every valley and hollow has its stream or river and the state is defined by the two biggest rivers of all, the muddy Missouri and the mighty Mississippi. The Mississippi runs down the state's eastern border. The Missouri comes down the western border to Kansas City, then crosses the state to St. Louis where it overtakes the Mississippi in a headlong rush to the sea.

I live in the lakes region, a few miles from Truman Lake. The lakes in southwest central Missouri are mostly the result of dambuilding. The Lake of the Ozarks was created by the construction of Bagnell Dam between 1929 and 1931. The shoreline of Lake of the Ozarks is longer than the California Pacific coast.

Truman Lake was created by the construction of the Harry S Truman Dam, which began in 1964, under the name "Kaysinger Bluff Dam" and continued throughout the seventies. Truman Lake is the largest flood control lake in Missouri and, like Lake of the Ozarks, has a longer shoreline than California. It is nationally recognized for its crappie fishing and every spring we see hordes of fishermen turning up for organized tournaments.

Truman Lake above the dam.

Flooded bridge on Vansant Road.

The sign reads "lake ahead". Just in case you don't notice that big body of water, you know.

Here is a great site for pictures and stories about Bagnall Dam and Lake of the Ozarks area history. Be sure to read "Jaws: The Freshwater Version"! Yikes!