Pond Building in the Ozarks ?

Curious to hear from anyone with experience building ponds in the Ozarks, it seems pretty rocky in the areas I'm looking at, wondering if you had to ship in clay or just used pond liners only? I'd like to make some ponds preferably without liners but if liners are needed then I will just try to include more retention earthworks to the rest of the system.. Anything else that you encountered while constructing ponds specific to the region?

Depending on where you are looking at, like on the Ozark Plateau, anyplace that isn't rocky, is clay soil.
So if you have to bring some clay in, it will be from pretty close. But some of the rocky/clay soil here doesn't absorb water at all, and wouldn't need much to make it hold water.

I think the question I'd have are if you are looking at buying rocky land, is a pond the best option for it at all? That would depend on why you want it, and what you want it to do. Figuring out why you want a pond will help decide how to do it. Rocky soil is often easier to go up with a retaining wall than down into it.

If this is theoretical, you might consider waiting until you have land to decide how to do it, as there are a lot of factors that change from area to area. The Ozarks are a diverse landscape.

Pearl Sutton wrote:Depending on where you are looking at, like on the Ozark Plateau, anyplace that isn't rocky, is clay soil.
So if you have to bring some clay in, it will be from pretty close. But some of the rocky/clay soil here doesn't absorb water at all, and wouldn't need much to make it hold water.

I think the question I'd have are if you are looking at buying rocky land, is a pond the best option for it at all? That would depend on why you want it, and what you want it to do. Figuring out why you want a pond will help decide how to do it. Rocky soil is often easier to go up with a retaining wall than down into it.

If this is theoretical, you might consider waiting until you have land to decide how to do it, as there are a lot of factors that change from area to area. The Ozarks are a diverse landscape.

That makes sense, and it is kind of theoretical, for now, although I definitely want to create aquatic habitat for fish, amphibians, and possibly native freshwater mussels, so I think I would try to find at least some place where a body of water could be fitting, even if ponds would not end up being the main design feature for relating with water on site. Ideally I'd like to create a pond within a ravine so in that situation it would likely make sense to build up a dam rather than digging down too much anyway. Specifically the area I am looking at is kind of central-southeast madison county, AR but I figured there would at least be some significant geological similarities throughout the mountains.
Right now I'm really just in the initial stages of thinking about possibilities, in the next year or so I'm hoping to go out there and start looking at land in person. I just want to prepare as much as I can before then.

Somewhat off topic: when I was deciding where I wanted to go, I looked at the historical tornado tracks and since we moved to where I am, I watch the radar in this area. That area (I'm not sure exactly where the pattern changes with the land change) is very often in the storm/tornado systems. You might consider that. Start watching radar in that area, and look up the historical tornadoes. Might make you be aware of things like the way a slope faces that might let storms bounce over you or hit hard.