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Natural Heritage |  |
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History
• Border Wars & Baldknobbers |
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| Border Wars & Baldknobbers Index • Nat Kinney, Baldknobber (from Chick Allen) • Homesteading on the James (from John Tilden) • The Legend of Belle Starr (from Chick Allen) _______ History Index • Baldknobbers • Into The Hills • Railroads of the Ozarks • The Upper South • War Between The States • Weapons of the Ozarks Culture Index • Agriculture • Book Learning • Cooking • Craftsmanship • Faith in the Hills • History • Music • People of the Hills • Storytelling • Tourism |
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Most think of the Ozarks today in terms of natural beauty, country music, fishing, summer traffic, Christmas lights.
But not long ago, the place was a battlefield.
It is humbling to realize that the Ozarks of the late nineteenth century more closely resembled a war-torn third world nation than a civilized country.
And perhaps there's some inspiration therein.
The full mural, painted in the late '60s, graces the entrance to Silver Dollar City's Fire In The Hole attraction.
Thus Sherwood was added to the growing list of Ozark communities that lay in ruins.
By now most of the Ozark region was essentially in a state of anarchy. Destroyed homes and murdered citizens had become commonplace in the region.
page 71, Civil War in the Ozarks, Phillip W. Steele and Steve Cottrell
Excerpt:
The Ozarks became a refuge for robbers, arsonists, and murderers. They preyed on children, the elderly, and women left unprotected with their men off to war....
Homeless refugees from caves and ruins along the Missouri-Arkansas border haunted the soldiers' quarters.
...[S]wept bands of bushwhackers, loyal to neither side. Led by cunning, sometimes demonic fanatics, bushwhackers raided, burned, and looted lonely farms.
The classic Ozarks bushwhacker was Alf Bolin....Young or old, it didn't matter. Bolin's gang robbed, raped and murdered victims between Crooked Creek, Arkansas, and Union headquarters at Springfield, Missouri.
He and his outlaws often ambushed unwary travelers along the main road from Arkansas north to Forsyth.
pages 12, 14, 15, Baldknobbers, Vigilantes On The Ozark Frontier by Mary Hartmann and Elmo Ingenthron.