I learn something new everyday:

The Ozarks (also referred to as Ozarks Mountain Country, the Ozark Mountains, and the Ozark Plateau) are a physiographic and geologic highland region of the central United States. It covers much of the southern half of Missouri and an extensive portion of northwestern and north central Arkansas. The region also extends westward into northeastern Oklahoma and extreme southeastern Kansas. The wooded Shawnee Hills of southwest Illinois, though commonly called the "Illinois Ozarks," are generally not considered part of the true Ozarks.

Although referred to as the Ozark Mountains, the region is actually a high and deeply dissected plateau. Geologically, the area is a broad dome around the Saint Francois Mountains. The Ozark Highlands area, covering nearly 47,000 square miles ({{#invoke:Math|precision_format| 121,729.44118579 | -3}} km2), is by far the most extensive mountainous region between the Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains. Together, the Ozarks and Ouachita Mountains form an area known as the U.S. Interior Highlands, and are sometimes referred to collectively. For example, the ecoregion called Ozark Mountain Forests includes the Ouachita Mountains, although the Arkansas River valley and the Ouachitas, both south of the Boston Mountains, are not usually considered part of the Ozarks.

~☆ Alice☆~ wrote: "I learn something new everyday:

The Ozarks (also referred to as Ozarks Mountain Country, the Ozark Mountains, and the Ozark Plateau) are a physiographic and geologic highland region of the central..."

Here is some literary information to go with this, Alice. In The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family is from Sallisaw. This town is on river bottom land between the Ozarks and the Ouachita Mountains. (Ouachita is pronounced as if the Ou sounds like a W. It's written "Ouachita" but spoken "Washita.") Sallisaw was not in the area known as the Dust Bowl. That area is much further west. Farmers and sharecroppers around Sallisaw suffered like other farmers and sharecroppers did in the South and Midwest during the Great Depression.

The geographical places described in Where the Red Fern Grows are real places and the location is a part of the Ozark plateau.

In True Grit, once the characters leave Fort Smith, virtually the entire story takes place in the Ouachita Mountains. These mountains are unique because the run east to west instead of north to south as the other North American Mountain ranges do.

Rilla Askew's book The Mercy Seat is about a family that settles in the Ouachitas in the late 1800's. It's an epic story.

Donald Harington wrote a number of books set in the Ozarks. His writing is an acquired taste, I think.

Barbara Kingsolver's Heaven in Pigs in Heaven is supposed to be in Cherokee County, Oklahoma. That's in the Ozark plateau as well.

Jackson wrote: " ~☆ Alice☆~ wrote: "I learn something new everyday:

The Ozarks (also referred to as Ozarks Mountain Country, the Ozark Mountains, and the Ozark Plateau) are a physiographic and geologic highland r..."

Thanks Jackson for this info. My grandmother was from somewhere in Arkansas and traveled into OK. It might have been in the Ouachita Mountains but not sure. Someplace called Flat Pin Rock or Pin Rock. Her father was a preacher in Arkansas. My sister thinks she was from the Fort Smith area. I really should read The Mercy Seat. I have a book about the Ozarks which I love to read now and again.

The Mercy Seat

~☆ Alice☆~ wrote: "Jackson wrote: " ~☆ Alice☆~ wrote: "I learn something new everyday:

The Ozarks (also referred to as Ozarks Mountain Country, the Ozark Mountains, and the Ozark Plateau) are a physiographic and geo..."

I would really be interested in your take on The Mercy Seat, Alice. I've read it but haven't rated or reviewed it here. It's a tour de force and an impressive work by all means. It's very dark and that's why I've refrained. So, when you get around to reading it, I'll really be interested in your impressions.

There are a lot of rural communities in the Oklahoma hills and Arkansas mountains. Some of these are marked by no more than a school or a gas station (or former gas station or school). I bet Flat Pin Rock is one of these.

Oh, I will hold off on reading it then as I just read A Casual Vacancy about a month ago and it was very dark and depressing. With the endless snow here in CO I need some light stuff to read.

Yes, I suspect that is true as I can never find it.

The Grapes of Wrath is on here twice (12 votes + 2 votes). Shouldn't they be combined?

Just an FYI:

"Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI" is listed twice - #18 and #30.

"Fire in Beulah" is listed twice - #21 and #73.

I have no idea in which state books took place. As far as I'm concerned, it was just somewhere in the US (I'm Dutch). I just voted for the ones already on the list 😊