ShareBy Jo Schaper
One of the most remote areas of Missouri is Douglas County. Just to the west of Willow Springs, one tier up from the more touristy Ozark County along the North Fork just before it runs into the White River, Douglas County is hilly, forested, and remote.
This area isn’t a tourist destination. [...]

Share(U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service news release)
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today designated the Ozark hellbender as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) and also finalized its decision to list the Ozark and eastern hellbender in Appendix III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora [...]

ShareJo note: I haven’t done an “Over the Back Fence” recently: these are a bunch of mini-stories and breaking news snippets from the region. Enjoy.

ShareA rare, but not unprecedented 4.2 magnitude earthquake shook Washington County southeast of Meramec State Park shortly after 3 a.m. this morning, waking the residents of Sullivan, but not causing any significant damage. UPDATE: By mid-morning, and with addition of new reporting stations and more data, the quake was downgraded to 3.9 Mw (regional [...]

ShareGov. Jay Nixon announced today that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has extended public disaster assistance to 22 additional counties in Missouri. Some counties were designated for public assistance only; some for public assistance, in addition to a previous designation for individual assistance;nd some for public assistance, in addition to a previous designation for [...]

ShareTraveler is famous for Pat Todd’s Iron Kettle recipe column. We know this because our subscribers say so when they call to renew. Pat’s recipes are plain cooking, and often adapted (or adaptable) to cooking in camp, or on a gravel bar.
In the spirit of the Iron Kettle, here are an entire list of [...]

ShareTraveler, and many of its readers, have a fondness for home-made Missouri music when it is good, (or at least the kind where playing for the love of it pays a large part in its making). Seeing as home-made music is an Ozark and rural Missouri tradition, it’s not unusual that news of jam sessions, [...]

ShareTraveler Web Extra:$3,000 radio collars, funded by Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, will let MDC monitor elk movements
By Jo Schaper
The first elk you see at Peck Ranch in southeast Missouri will most likely be wearing a radio collar with an antenna.
Although Missouri’s first free-roaming elk in 150 years will be exactly that — free roaming — [...]

ShareA small town in Texas County today will receive the commemorative survey marker from the United States Census Bureau designating it as the population center of the country. Gov. Jay Nixon issued a proclamation honoring the village of Plato for receiving that designation, the fourth consecutive Missouri community to be termed the center of the [...]

ShareEven though much of Missouri and the Midwest is high and dry, many of the roads in Southeast and south central Missouri, including some major ones, are closed or detoured. (Jo has even had a personal request from Texas to divert some our water down there.) Want to find out what is flooded where? [...]