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Explore the Ozarks compass

Explore the Ozarks is an online resource that offers information about the Ozarks and Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. We seek to offer useful and accurate information, maps, and photographs that the outdoor enthusiast will appreciate.

Founded in 2010 by outdoor enthusiast and web developer Justin Fisher, Explore the Ozarks was launched online in October of 2011. Fisher, a native to the Missouri Ozarks, has researched and verified all of the information presented here, and has taken all the photographs of the various places covered by Explore the Ozarks. He strives to provide his visitors valuable information on the outdoors, with an emphisis on quality, accuracy, comprehensiveness, and usefulness. The outdoors are his passion, and he hopes that Explore the Ozarks will convey that passion in a way that inspires other to get out and explore.

The Person

I have always been fascinated at what the Ozarks & Ouachita Mountains have to offer. Why live anywhere else? Having been born and raised in southwest Missouri, I truly have a first hand knowledge of how unique this part of the country is. Always out hiking new trails or floating down a lazy stream, I try to organize and document my experiences, and the results are gathered here in this website.

The Reason

Having lived here all my life, I am always looking for new and exciting places to explore. While reading books about the Ozarks and scouring the internet, I became increasingly frustrated at both the lack of information, and always having to "hunt" the information down through an endless sea of irrelevant websites. Many of the sites only had a sentence or two of information. This was not good enough for me, so I decided to do something about it. And that's how Explore the Ozarks was born.

The Site

This site represents my dream and passion, my commitment to that dream, and the materialization of my passion; Exploring the Ozarks. Here you will find a collection of the Ozarks, be it her rugged outdoor beauty, colorful history, best places to eat, or where to spend the night. I hope this site will help you learn a little more about the Ozarks, and maybe discover a few places you've never heard of along the way.