The Ozarks is a region located in southern Missouri, northern Arkansas and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Illinois. This region is characterized by its unique karst geography consisting of limestone bluffs, rolling hills, and winding rivers. However, beneath this scenic beauty lies a complex layered history that is still being uncovered.
Dr. Daniel E. Pierce is a Research Archaeologist at Missouri State University (MSU) in Springfield. He has experience in archaeology in areas all over the world as well as the Ozarks.
“Ozarks archaeology is really interesting. The landscape itself is one of the most beautiful places in America, so I always enjoy doing fieldwork in the area,” Pierce said.
Pierce explained that he grew up in St. Louis and he has always enjoyed visiting the Ozarks.
“While I have worked in places all over the world, from the jungles of Guatemala, to the vast steppes of Mongolia, the Ozarks have their own unique charm. We may not have giant pyramids or temples, but we have a long history of Native American cultures that have lived in the area with sites all across the area. This, of course, is not to mention all of the great history that we can see all around us, even in Springfield itself,” Pierce said.
The Ozarks were settled by indigenous people long before the arrival of European settlers. Native American tribes such as the Osage and Choctaw inhabited the Ozarks. These Native communities were diverse but generally had permanent villages or were bluff dwelling. Renaments of these are often found and excavated by archaeologists.
Throughout the 1700s French and Spanish traders passed through the Ozarks but generally didn’t permanently settle the area.
This changed with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 which caused migration of American settlers to the Ozarks who were drawn to the abundant natural resources and land.
Springfield was settled in the 1830’s by homesteaders, unfortunately causing ongoing conflict and displacement of Native American tribes that inhabited the area, such as the Kickapoo tribe. The addition of the railway line connecting Springfield with the rest of the country as well as the Civil War further shaped history in Springfield and the Ozarks. They have a rich folklore and culture that influences how we interpret the history of the area.
Dr. Brooks R. Blevins is the Noel Boyd Professor of Ozarks Studies at MSU. He has published many works featuring Ozarks studies and also helped create the Minor in Ozarks studies which is offered at MSU. As an expert in the field, Blevins has developed his own argument pertaining to the Ozarks uniqueness in contrast with the rest of America.
“The one big thing I’ve spent my career pushing back against is the popular assumption that the Ozarks is somehow fundamentally unique, that the region’s history exists outside the continuum of U.S. history in general,” Blevins said.
Blevins has many examples of things that people use to support this idea of Ozarks uniqueness.
“This assumption takes various forms. Someone might argue that the Ozarks have been peculiarly lawless and violent. Someone might argue that the Ozarks of the pre-Civil War era were isolated from the economic and cultural currents of American society. Someone might say that, due to the comparatively small number of enslaved people in the Ozarks and the lack of a physical threat posed by them, slavery was somehow more benign and less egregious in this region than in other parts of the Slave South,” Blevins said.
The idea of Ozarks exceptionalism is a prominent belief held by many people. Blevins believes that this is a falsehood that hinders the field he studies.
“These and many more assumptions of ‘uniqueness’ exist in the popular imagination and sometimes in scholarly literature. By pushing back against this, I’m not suggesting that the history of the Ozarks isn’t important or that it isn’t interesting or colorful. I’m arguing that the story of our past shares many more commonalities than differences with the mainstream story of American history and that insisting on a manufactured uniqueness, for whatever reason, risks leaving a skewed record and omitting important groups of people and events from our story,” Blevins said.
Blevins has emphasized the importance of archaeology in the Ozarks, as it helps uncover the history of marginalized and otherwise unrecognized groups in the Ozarks.
“As someone trained in history and not archaeology, I can’t claim any specific insights or even a lot of experience with archaeological research. What I can say, though, is that I owe a great debt to many excellent archaeologists and to the work they’ve done in the Ozarks,” Belivins said.
Historical archaeologists are people who study the past by combining material remains such as artifacts or buildings with written records to better understand how people lived. Blevins argues for the importance of archaeology in understanding the history of the Ozarks.
“When I started doing research for my three-volume history of the Ozarks several years ago, the most advanced and nuanced scholarly interpretations that I encountered were almost always the work of historical archaeologists. They were already pushing back against the “exceptionalizers,” the people who insisted that the Ozarks’ past didn’t fit the mold of the general American past. The historical archaeologists, at least since the 1980’s, have been finding and writing about the artifacts and evidence that connected Ozarks history with a very American story, whether in terms of the interactions between Native Americans and white settlers, commerce in the early nineteenth century, slavery, secession, civil war and reconstruction, and postwar modernization. Their findings were not widely known, especially among the general reading public, but they were a tremendous help to and influence on my research,” Blevins said.
As technology has progressed, archaeology in the Ozarks has begun to make waves in understanding local history. This makes it easier for professionals such as Blevins to conduct research. Dr. Daniel Peirce is skilled in some of this new technology. Pierce is a specialist in geospatial analysis as well as geochemistry, which are commonly used by archaeologists when analyzing artifacts and archaeological sites.
“I have used geospatial analysis for both local and exotic projects. Locally, I have used it to create predictive models to determine where it is most likely to find unknown archaeological sites. I also regularly use ArcGIS for all of our mapping. Elsewhere, in places like Mexico, I have used it to combine with chemical analysis to determine the likely source of clays used to create ancient pottery, to model visibility by elites over the population of ancient Cahokia Mounds, and to hypothesize the most likely trade routes taken by ancient merchants. There are so many great tools available through ArcGIS, many of which can give us insight into ancient cultures,” Pierce said.
ArcGIS is a common platform used by archaeologists around the world. It is used to create and share maps and data for archaeological projects.
This has allowed archaeologists to find areas to excavate that they wouldn’t have noticed without GIS, and it also helps archaeologists estimate potential threats to an archaeological site. This technology helps archaeologists plot data in a visualized way helping them to find patterns in their findings.
Another type of technology that helps archaeologists uncover the past is geochemical analysis.
“My work with geochemistry mostly looks at determining the source of ancient artifacts. With items such as stone tools and pottery, the chemical composition of the artifact will match the chemistry of the source material. Pottery is made from clay, for example. So the chemical composition of the ancient pottery we find today as an artifact will match the chemical composition of the place where the clay was used to create it. Today, we can determine the chemical composition of that pottery and compare that to samples of natural clays found on the landscape and that can tell us if that pot was made from that particular clay,“ Pierce said.
Pierce uses this technology locally, usually when analyzing materials from fieldwork. Arrowheads are a common artifact found across the Ozarks.
“The same can be said for stone tools, like Arrowheads. If we find an arrowhead in Springfield, with the appropriate analysis, we can determine that the Arrowhead was actually made in Kansas, for example. Locally, we have used that to determine the source of stone tools. I have also used it to determine the origin of a type of Iron-rich stone called hematite that was used in the past to make red pigments and other types of tools,” Pierce said
These techniques, ArcGIS and geochemical analysis, are commonly used in local projects.
Pierce just finished teaching an Archaeological Field School course for MSU where he led an excavation at Nathanael Greene Park and the adjoining Darr Agricultural Center. This was actually the location of one of the first homesteads in Springfield, settled in the 1830’s.
“My students and I were able to find all kinds of artifacts from the period including nearly 200-year-old pottery, and Civil War-era artifacts. But as an example of just how interesting the area is, we also found many prehistoric artifacts here as well, including a spear point that is thousands of years old,” Pierce said.
There are many interesting projects such as this one that are helping historians and archaeologists understand history in the Ozarks. Another example of this would be Big Eddy. According to information from MSU, Big Eddy was a dig that became a focus of national archaeological attention. Near Springfield, along the Sac River archaeologists started digging at an eroded spot by the bank. At this dig they found evidence of people living in the Ozarks over 10,000 years ago and the tools they used. This helped archaeologists across the world understand life at this time.
Preserving the past in both archaeological and historical work is an important part of understanding heritage and culture.
“There are many, many people who are doing invaluable work preserving and telling history. Some of these are more high-profile and obvious, like the Center for Archaeological Research at MSU, state and national parks and agencies engaged in public history, and local historical societies that take the initiative in doing the research and writing the paperwork for National Register nominations,” Blevins said.
Blevins also brought to light some local specialized groups that are instrumental to preserving Ozark heritage.
“There are some special interest groups that have done great things in recent years, like the Society of Ozarkian Hillcrofters in southwestern Missouri. They’ve raised money and gathered volunteers to restore the old Notch “Shepherd of the Hills” post office; they’ve sponsored all kinds of public programming. There are growing initiatives in schools and elsewhere to teach young people to play traditional instruments and old-timey music. The public schools of Mountain View, Arkansas, and Eminence, Missouri, have such programs, and there are regional summer programs doing similar work. There are regional chroniclers like Kaitlyn McConnell and her Ozarks Alive online magazine that constantly bring attention to the efforts of others to preserve regional heritage in myriad ways. There are specific community efforts by individuals, like Crockett and Tonya Oaks in West Plains, who bought the old building that was once a Black school from the Jim Crow era and then headed up a successful fundraising effort to restore it and use it for community events,” Blevins said.
There are many ways to engage in cultural heritage, even if someone doesn’t enjoy the spotlight.
“There are very behind-the-scenes but important people like my friend from back home in Arkansas, Sue Shell Chrisco, who spent years identifying and cleaning up abandoned cemeteries, identifying potential caretakers for them, and helping those caretakers establish cemetery associations for perpetual maintenance and care. There are so many stories like this that you couldn’t cover them all in an entire book, and that’s a very encouraging thought,” Blevins said.
If you are interested in archaeology or Ozarks history and heritage, there are many ways to get involved. At MSU you can study archaeology, where you can work alongside professors such as Dr. Pierce. Or you could choose to study history and Ozarks heritage, and have the opportunity to work with professors like Dr. Blevins. But, if that is too much of a commitment there are many ways to get involved. You can take part in some of the things Dr. Blevins mentioned or you can join the Missouri Archaeological society.
“The Ozarks Chapter is actually centered in Springfield at Missouri State University. During the normal school year, they meet each month and often have very interesting talks about archaeology with guest speakers, and often have events where everyone can do a bit of archaeology themselves. It is a really neat resource that is right here in Springfield,” Brooks said.
As a citizen in the Ozarks, being involved in archaeology and history of the area is an amazing way to discover and understand the Ozarks’ past and culture. Archaeology is a fascinating field that is full of niche topics and technology.
There are fieldwork opportunities across the Ozarks that are open to untrained people allowing them to have hands-on experience in archaeology. Archaeology in the Ozarks is in a way unique, and is still being uncovered by a diverse group of hardworking individuals, one layer at a time.
