With beautiful cliffs above meandering rivers such as the White and Buffalo, deep blue skies contrasted with masses of green timber, and wildlife moving constantly in the background, the Ozark Mountains are one of the oldest mountain ranges on earth. Standing atop an Ozark hill, you feel like you're on solid ground. Yet, in many of the most beautiful spots, you're probably standing right on the top of a ceiling -- the ceiling of a cave room carved eons ago.

A regional writer from the first half of the 20th century, newspaper editor Tom Shiras, suggests that to see some of the most wondrous Ozark sites, you have to "turn the mountain inside out or penetrate to the inside."

"Forests of gigantic stalactites and stalagmites of every color of the rainbow; draperies so cannily made by the hand of nature that one expects to see them move in the breeze, bits of beautiful lace done in onyx with the edges frilled. Pyramids, faces in stone, half-completed bodies, grotesque images that resemble idols, totem poles, stalactite harps that one might play with drumsticks, delicate grillwork, old castles, and most parts of the human body from toenails to brains."

Mountain Village 1890

1011 C. S. Woods Boulevard

P. O. Box 444