Kevin Collignon

Riley Hughes wrote:I used to say that the Ozarks was the best kept secret in the Untied States. It is beautiful here, but many have always associated it with inbred hillbillys. I would try to convince people of how awesome it is and get them to come see it.... Well, it isn't a secret anymore, seems everyone has at least heard of the Ozarks at this point. I love this place dearly and while I am glad others can enjoy it, I find myself becoming resentful at times towards the massive influx of coastal people moving here.

That being said, I'd rather see someone trying to do regenerative ag move here than people trying to move into new subdivisions with HOAs. There is a small, but thriving and close knit community of small sustainable farmers and permaculture practitioners in my area (Southwest /Southcentral Missouri). There Is a massive amount of biodiversity here and I have heard that it is due to the fact that it remained virtually untouched by the glaciers and their melt. There are large swaths of land covered in steep rocky hillsides (it's technically an ancient off branch of the Appalachians that was cut off by the Mississippi) that make all forms of Ag difficult which is part of the reason it has maintained so much woodland. But there are also pockets of great flat soil in the valleys and near stream beds. I have noticed that the outskirts of the Ozarks tend to have less steep rolling hills with better soil (that is where I am now, nice sandy loam here). I suggest looking north of Interstate 44, and South of the Missouri River. The land in this region is more palatable to ag. But you are still in the Ozarks and close enough to the deep Ozarks to enjoy is as a pastime, be it fishing, canoeing, hiking, cave exploring, rock climbing, or just camping.

Thank you for the suggestions. My family and I actually just got back from spending a month living with a family near Ava Missouri to get a feel for the area and I think we're sold on it completely even though we were there during a heat wave. We intended to go back in a couple of months to meet with someone who is considering selling us some land that she has kept untouched by commercial agg and loggers for the last 40+years and is now willing to share it with the right people to pass on it's beauty. If that doesn't work out we will continuing scouring the area for something that meets our needs. We looked at some places while we were there but they were bought up before we even had a chance to make an offer.i guess that's the influx of people you mentioned.

Chanel Smith wrote:I just moved here to NW AR in July of last year (2021) from Texas myself. I am LOVING the weather. The winter was a true winter and I was nervous approaching it but it really wasn't all that bad, colder than a Texas winter but pretty similar. We got some real snow a few times this past year and everything shut down during the snow storms just like it does in Texas which I loved. It gave me some time to slow down and enjoy it. There are definitely rocks like people said but they make great edges for beds and herb spirals and anything else creative you can think of. The problem is the solution? I am just planting my first garden here though because when we initially moved in we were in an apartment so I'll have to update you on how well things grow here but from what I have observed, this climate is LUSH and full of life. I have observed that other people's gardens are thriving with far less watering than I am accustomed to having to do. We actually get rain here and the cold of an actual winter is so worth the perfect spring, summer and fall. Also, there is so much opportunity for foraging here and just being one with nature. At least where I'm at, there are rivers, lakes, springs, streams and creeks all over the place. I feel so blessed to be living in a place that is so full of life. Also, check this out. >>   https://www.ustornadoes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Annual-United-States-Tornadoes-State-Averages.png
I like those odds in comparison to Texas.

Thank you for this response. What you described is exactly what I had imagined things would be like based on what I have learned about the area. I'm just so tired of struggling to grow anything between the extreme summer heat with drought conditions and the winters where it goes from summer temperatures to 20's so it kills everything that doesn't realize it's winter. Also that our spring and fall lasts about two days since we basically have borderline summer conditions from about March to January or at least we did this year it makes it hard to imagine being successful here long term.

My family and I are going to the spring planting festival at Baker Creek in a week and we are going to camp for a few days in the south west Missouri and then after the festival we are going to Devil's den state park in Arkansas for another few days and I am hoping spending some time in the spring climate and just being in the nature of that area will convince my wife that the Ozarks area is where we need to settle.

Anne Miller wrote:Kevin, if you are just planning a family garden that will work as that is what we did.

I don't know of any dirt companies here to get dirt from so we bought bags of soil, well-aged manure and we were fortunate to have lots of leaf mold on our property. Our success with the garden built with that was not as successful as when we lived where we could get great soil delivered from river beds.

Having only visited the Ozarks I bet they have great soil in river beds if there is someone who delivers.

I was thinking the same thing about the soil delivery. I had the pipe dream of bringing my super nice compost I made with me but I'm not sure it is practical. We may have to compromise so the property is as close to our dream as possible while also being practical.

Anne Miller wrote:If I were looking for land in the Ozarks I would look for land that has been previously farmed.

Land in river valleys would be another good option.

Where I currently live it is easy to spot which land is good for growing things and which land is only good for growing animals.  It is sheep and goat country for a reason.

The cow country is in the river valleys which is where any farming is done.  

I few properties that caught my eye were tree heavy properties with active year round creeks but I wasn't sure about the soils since trees can basically grow anywhere. They look pretty rocky in the lower areas around the creeks but you can't see any rocks higher up in the landscape I'm sure they are there hiding though. I am not too concerned with shallow soils since soil can be built as long as I have year round water I can make most places work in theory. I guess I need to just dig my hands in the ground to know for sure that any property is work while.

Tom Worley wrote:A lot of the Texas settlers (Moses Austin included) came from or through the Ozarks, so the two regions are pretty similar culturally.  The Ozarks is also cattle country, I think it's #2 in production, second to Texas.  

Most of the Ozarks is underlain by sedimentary rock (mostly limestone, some sandstone), ridgetops and side slops are typically pretty stony, river valleys are narrow and loamy.  

Tree associations conform pretty slightly to soil conditions in many parts of the Ozarks.  Loamy bottomland soils and north-facing slopes typically consist of black walnut, red oak, black cherry, white ash, mulberry.  Side slopes are drier, with thinner soils, often with a mix of white and black oak and hickory.  

Ridgetops can be rocky, some are silt loam with an impervious claypan a foot or two down.  They're typically the driest, with species like shingle and post oak.  Dry soils with limestone bedrock typically harbor chinkapin oak and eastern red cedar, dry soils with sandstone bedrock typically harbor shortleaf pine.  

There's a good soil map online (https://careshq.org/map-room/) where you can get an idea of soil type and what trees grow well, which gives some idea of the productivity and arable-ness (?) of the property.  If the map doesn't load soil boundaries, you can search "soil boundaries" and it should pop up.

Good luck!  

Thank you so much this is a lot of good information to have. I'm looking forward to checking out properties in the near future.

Carla Burke wrote:Since your family is in Arkansas, you'll not want to be on the north side of the lake, even if you end up in Missouri. The lake is too wide to put bridges over, and so long, that from where I am, in the middle of the state, the drive is about 5.5 hours just to get to the southeast corner of the state, and roughly 4, to get to Branson.

I meant that Arkansas is closer to my family is who in Texas. We are moving from Texas it's a few hours longer depending on what part of the Ozarks we drive to from here. So we are aiming for as close as we can get within reason.

Pearl Sutton wrote:A random thing to consider: lots of people have decided to leave the cities and come here. The neighbors might not be open to being friendly at this point. A guy said the other day "I swear you go out to bale hay, come home that night and have 3 new neighbors. and who ARE they?"  But I suspect anyplace rural is getting the influx.

I don't know how studious you are, these are some links I found useful when figuring out where to buy

Tornadoes are going to be around, some areas have more or less chances. I looked at the historical tracks for the last 70 years, and saw the patterns, and avoided the worst areas.
Tornado Track Tool - MRCC

And somewhere on here (I don't have it bookmarked) NRCS home page  there are links to PDF files of soil surveys for various counties. I learned a LOT from them.

In general, I like it here. Would I move here again? Probably. Although I'd buy land out of the city limits of this small town. I have some great neighbors, but have had theft issues with the meth heads.

I do like the area though, and am pleased with my choice.

I understand that completely we live in a very rural area currently (mostly cow pastures) and every day it seems like there are new neighborhoods and house popping up closer and closer to where we live and it makes me feel like the ruralness of our area will be short lived. I am okay with the neighbors not being to warm with us at first I am aiming for wooded hidden away from everything kind of area so I would hope neighbors would be more the live and let live types if anyone loves there at all.

My wife was concerned about the idea of tornadoes but she forgets that we get them too. She looked up stats and found that in ranking Texas is number 1 in the country for the most major natural disasters and Arkansas and Missouri are number 9 and 10 so I think it may be an upgrade as far as over all ranking but

I will for sure look at the links you gave me it will help make a better informed decision. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience with the area.

Carla Burke wrote:

Kevin Collignon wrote:I have seen that terrain online on some of the properties but I know it would be a lot better to get out there in person. I think we were aiming for around 20 acres for that reason to have the ability to find the ideal spot on the property instead of compromising due to lack of space. I also figure having 20ish acres will give use the ability to have plenty of privacy. I would like to live somewhere there are actual seasons not just summer weather spaced out with crazy cold snaps. I would love somewhere with at least a little consistency.

Another bonus with 20 acres, is that it gets you free deer hunting tags, every year. The minimum was 5 acres when we bought ours, but it was bumper up, last year.

I'm not sure where you're looking, though. The Ozarks is an enormous area. I'm in central MO, on the north side of the lake. I know a couple great realtors, here - and a couple I wouldn't trust with a tent, lol. Let me know if you want their names.

At this point we are mostly looking in the Arkansas area because its a few hours closer to where my family lives. But at this point I would be willing to look at whatever fits our land needs. My wife wants to visit the general area before we do any serious shopping so she feels like we aren't just being lured in by pretty pictures that don't match reality. But when the time comes I will for sure circle back and message you for those names.

Carla Burke wrote:The soil and often steep-ravined terrain are sometimes difficult. But, if you can get your hands on a good sized piece of land - say 20 acres or more - you can end up with a little bit of everything, so that is just a matter of good layout planning, if you build your own place. For example, we are on 29 acres of mostly wooded land, but we have sunny areas, wet areas, places where there's nothing but rocks, and the more we explore, the more of some areas with very good soil, that just need a tree taken down, to provide more sun, for planting. We get a solid four seasons - sometimes, all in the same 24hr period - but, a very nice, long growing season.

As far as the realtors, they're there to sell the property, so, as long as you're not digging up huge chunks, or damaging anything, I don't see any reason they'd be upset. The owners might be a different story. But, shopping when there's no snow on the ground does have the advantage of letting you see where there may already be garden plots, and looking at the vegetation already in place can tell you a lot about the soil, too.

I have seen that terrain online on some of the properties but I know it would be a lot better to get out there in person. I think we were aiming for around 20 acres for that reason to have the ability to find the ideal spot on the property instead of compromising due to lack of space. I also figure having 20ish acres will give use the ability to have plenty of privacy. I would like to live somewhere there are actual seasons not just summer weather spaced out with crazy cold snaps. I would love somewhere with at least a little consistency.

Matt Todd wrote:I live in Northwest Missouri but have spent a decent amount of time in the Ozarks. Aside from the climate, be sure to check out the people and towns you'll be around.

Northwest Arkansas has some permaculture communities and a much better vibe than Southeast Missouri. I know, every community is different but... Southeast MO is the only place I've ever been offered crack at a music festival! Meth culture is very real in some pockets of that Missouri area.  

Thank you for the heads up about the potential drug problem in some areas. I worked in law enforcement for almost a decade and most of that time was in rural areas that had heavy meth use. I hope after all the time I dealt with it I know what warning sighs to look out for.