The Ozarks Mountaineer

[Junior]

The Ozarks Mountaineer was published in the Branson area for 60 years. This regional magazine featured arts and crafts, Ozarks history and legends, and is the bible for all things Ozarks related. SAD NEWS: this publication ceased with the Nov/Dec issue. Hard economic times have caused this periodical to fold! If you are not familiar with the magazine, I hope you will pick up a copy of it and thumb through it if you spot one anywhere. Go into a big library and you will find bound copies of the magazine. ebay often sells copies in the book section of the auction site. Type in the work Ozarks and more than likely many copies will pop up that you can bid on. I have been a subscriber, and I've picked up copies off the news stand. Well worth your time, I promise. At various times the office of the magazine was located in Kirbyville, near Branson, or in Branson. They had excellent bookstores over the years, including a store at Engler's Block and one at good ole Mutton Hollow. For a couple of years, I was an "Ozarks Mountaineer Ambassador." I distributed copies of the magazine at many northwest Arkansas hospital waiting rooms and clinic waiting rooms. I even distributed hundreds of copies at the famous War Eagle Fair a few years ago. Two of my poems were published in the magazine, but sadly, an article I submitted to them back in 2004 was never published. My old English 101 professor from School of the Ozarks, Fred Pfister, was the last editor of the magazine. I cannot tell you how this breaks my heart that the magazine has folded. It is a fond part of my life in the Ozarks from my teenage years to last December. You can still check out the last issue of the magazine by going to the Ozarks Mountaineer Website. Just type the title into your search engine and the site should be among the first listed. I have hung on to almost every copy of the magazine I have found in the last several years, and the back issues are an important part of my personal library. I use the magazine as research material for the articles I write about Ozarks history and folklore. Sometimes I thumb through copies just for the fun of it. I hope you will look for a copy of the magazine. Thanks for letting me vent here!

[rubedugans]

For some time, copies of the Mountaineer were sold at Engler's carving store at Grand Village, I believe that the first copy was free.

[OzarkBred]

So sorry to hear that, Junior. I remember reading them at the Christian County Library in Ozark as a kid. I learned almost everything I knew about my Ozark heritage from four sources: my parents and the old folks we knew, Lebanon High School's excellent "Bittersweet" magazine from the 1970s, Jimmy Driftwood's "Music of the Ozarks" album that he made for the National Geographic Society, and the Mountaineer.

The Mountaineer was my very last print magazine subscription. As a former newspaperman I know the numbers for print publishing don't work anymore, and no one has figured out how to squeeze enough money from online advertising and distribution to replace the old revenue streams.

I hope someone can at least scan those 60 years of Mountaineers and make it available online. For anyone who loves Ozark history and lore, that would be a trove equal to Silas Turnbo's manuscripts (http://thelibrary.org/lochist/turnbo/index.html).

[Junior]

Yes, Rube, copies of the Mountaineer were still available in Engler's shop last time I was in there. Ozarkbred, I've written for an on line publication called "Life in the Ozarks," and it folded last year. I'm still upset about that. That e-zine published many of my stories. Another good publication is "The Ozarks Reader" out of Neosho, MO. I've written for them, too. The magazine published three times a year...until last year. Just two issues in 2012 due to financial reasons. Not sure what is going on there this year. Such a shame to see regional publications like this suffer and die. Best thing we can do is subscribe and/or pick up copies at news racks. Support your Ozarks publications!

[Gilligan]

Oh, gosh! I forgot all about this magazine.  I used to live for it!  My grandma had a lifetime subscription to it.  When I was in Shriner's Hospital (multiple multiple times as a kid), it was a GREAT day when I knew my parents were coming to visit with the latest Mountaineer that Grandma had sent me.  Once she passed, I had my own subscription for years, but then kids, jobs, moves, etc. and I guess it just went the way side.  I loved all of it - stories, photos, recipes...

[MissinTheGreenTrams]

This is a bummer. I enjoyed thumbin through copies of this magazine. I borrowed them from the library and would share random things in there with my husband. It was a clean decent read that I wouldnt have to worry about my kid picking it up and looking through. It will be missed.

[rubedugans]

I remember buying a lot on ebay several years back for my pops.

[Junior]

Folks who subscribed to OM or regularly picked up copies almost always kept them. The magazine was used as reference material, or just kept to look at over and over again. I used to put old copies out at the waiting rooms of some area hospitals and clinics, people were snatching them up and taking them home rather than leaving them for others to read.

[Gilligan]

BEST magazine ever!  I wish I still had my old copies.

[Junior]

AHHHHHH! I am bummed out again! Last year, the ezine I wrote for, "Life in the Ozarks," based in Shirley, AR folded. Last December, "The Ozarks Mountaineer," that I wrote some poetry for folded. I found out just now that another magazine I wrote for, "The Ozarks Reader," similar in content to the Mountaineer, based in Neosho, MO, has folded. All three of these magazines were excellent publications. I'm getting worried, there is a publication at Lowry City, MO I write for as well, and have not seen February edition, or heard from the publisher although I've emailed. Hey, folks, SUPPORT your favorite magazines and newspapers, hard times are upon them. This economy stinks! 

[rubedugans]

Were any of those publications e-zines. Or were they just hard paper copies? Paper copies are selling less and less these days, newspapers will be the next to go since people can get the same content digitally.

[Junior]

Life in the Ozarks was completely an ezine. The Ozarks Mountaineer had both a Website with limited info, and a full blown print publication. Ozarks Reader, print publication only.

[Junior]

I contacted the publisher of The Ozarks Reader at Neosho, MO and he was able to get me a COMPLETE set of all 24 copies of that magazine, which was published about three times per year from 2004-2012. If you find any copies of the magazine, hang on to them, the magazine will not resume publication. I also contacted the editor and proofreader for Ozarks Mountaineer, and both say that magazine probably will never come back. Sad, sad news! the Mountaineer had published for 60 years!

[oldsdcer]

Went the way the same a Branson Magazine which I enjoyed reading when it was published.

[Junior]

More sad news today about the publisher of another regional publication I regularly contribute to:    A. Joe Davis, publisher of The Missouri Chigger, based in Lowry City, MO, is suffering from serious health problems which may cause a temporary suspension of publication for July and August editions. Please say a prayer for A. Joe and his wife Sylvia, two very nice folks. If you are ever in Lowry City, a tiny town of less 1,000 souls, stop by the Chigger "world headquarters." and pick up a copy. The magazine has subscribers in 50 states and a few foreign countries. The magazine serves the Truman Lake, Lake of the Ozarks Area. If you are around either lake, you will find copies of the Chigger at bait shops, convenience stores, grocery stores, flea markets, and other similar places. It is a humor and nostalgic magazine, with bits of Ozarks history and folklore thrown in. Some short articles on fishing and hunting in Missouri, too. God bless, A. Joe and Sylvia, hope you are well and back at work soon!