The idea the Ozarks is inhabited by primitives has been perpetuated in books by educated travelers like Schoolcraft, in popular songs like the “Arkansaw Traveler,” and in souvenir postcards, like this one by George Hall.
We have incorporated many quotes by Lynn Morrow in our books. This paragraph from “Shepherd of the Hills County: Tourism Transforms the Ozarks, 18802-1930s” by Lynn Morrow and Linda Meyers-Phinney, so perfectly describes this posed photograph that we use it in its entirety.
The book exquisitely describes the romanticism and sentimentality that pervaded early Ozark tourism. Like Mark Twain, the authors debunk popular culture without dismissing the people who embraced its mythologies.
