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working to protect the rights of the people to use and access public lands and waterways
(C) 2009 - Voice of the Ozarks Organization
There is a place in the Ozarks that is reminiscent of the America that Lewis and
Clark found while searching for the Northwest Passage. It is the Current and Jacks
Fork Watershed area of lower central Missouri. It hasn’t changed much over the
years; as a matter of fact the population is about the same as it was in 1960. Horses
have been a big part of the culture here for a long time. Almost everyone owns and
or rides horses and we had open range up until the 60’s. Today there are three
herds of wild horses roaming the hills, woods and streams of Shannon County
Missouri. The largest organized trail ride in the United States is located here. It is
truly the heart of America, culturally and geographically. We are a conservative
bunch and we believe in the second amendment and individual rights. Historically
we have hunted, fished and trapped as a way of life. We like to look our politicians
in the eye when they speak to us. We have an old fashioned notion that we are the
Government. Our economy is built on three industries, Tourism Logging and Trail
riding, without which our community would disappear.
In the late 1960’s the United States Park Service decided that it needed to manage
our river ways for us and thus created THE OZARK NATIONAL SCENIC
RIVERWAYS. This was a new idea and hadn’t been done previously. They set out
to obtain the privately owned land adjacent to our rivers. Through Eminent Domain
and other unscrupulous means they took over the land to manage at their discretion.
Not to be outdone the Missouri Department of Conservation obtained tens of
thousands of acres in our area also! Professional management for the benefit of the
people we were told!
These past few years have seen numerous attempts by the National Park Service to
close off roads, trails and streams to people who have historically used them for
150+ years. They intimidate our locally elected officials in an attempt to gain
compliance with their regulatory acts. They contend that they can enforce the law as
well as legislate it! The Missouri Department of Conservation is also closing trails
and is in the process of executing a plan to devastate the natural beauty of our