6 Best Towns in The Ozarks to Visit
Branson alone has around fifty live theaters and a paddlewheel showboat, and it is only one stop in the Ozarks. The region reaches across Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and a corner of Kansas, about 47,000 square miles of forested hills and dammed lakes. Grove fronts a lake with 1,300 miles of shoreline. Neosho has its fish hatchery, and Bentonville a free museum of American art. Galena still parks the tow truck said to have inspired Pixar's Mater.
Neosho, Missouri
Neosho, Missouri, at sunrise. Editorial credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Neosho is a fish town. The National Fish Hatchery opened here in 1888, the oldest federal one still raising fish. The visitor center is free, with a walk-in aquarium bubble. Its rainbow trout end up in Lake Taneycomo, down near Branson. Downtown has a stranger claim. A flag and flower box built from a 66-foot railroad car claims to be the world's largest. The old business district is on the National Register. The Odd Fellows Cemetery, going back to 1855, is good for a slow walk.
Two parks edge the town. Big Spring Park and the Bicentennial Conservation Area are open year-round for walking and fishing.
Branson, Missouri
The Landing in Branson, Missouri. Image credit: NSC Photography / Shutterstock.com
About fifty theaters line the strip in Branson. One puts on Dolly Parton's Stampede, a dinner show. The Showboat Branson Belle is a working paddlewheeler. It serves dinner and a stage show on Table Rock Lake. A few miles west, Silver Dollar City rebuilds an 1880s mining town as a theme park. More than two million people pass through a year.
Branson has water on two sides. It lies on Lake Taneycomo, below Table Rock Dam. Moonshine Beach, up on Table Rock, gets crowded all summer.
Grove, Oklahoma
Grove opens onto Grand Lake of the Cherokees. The reservoir is 46,500 acres, with about 1,300 miles of shoreline. Pro bass tournaments come here. In summer it crowds with boats. The Honey Creek area of Grand Lake State Park is just outside town. Wolf Creek Park has a public boat ramp northwest of downtown.
Lendonwood Gardens takes up eight acres in town. It grows more than 1,200 kinds of plants. Its false cypress collection is among the largest in the country. The koi pond takes quarters for fish food. The azaleas and rhododendrons peak in April and May. The Botanical Garden of the Ozarks is another 70 miles southeast, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Claremore, Oklahoma
Claremore is northeast of Tulsa, in the Ozark foothills. Will Rogers made it his hometown. He was a humorist and an actor, born nearby and buried here. The Will Rogers Memorial Museum stands on twenty acres he bought in 1911. A few blocks away is the J. M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum. Its gun collection is one of the largest private ones anywhere.
Downtown is a dense cluster of old buildings. The business district is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Belvidere Mansion went up in 1907, the year Oklahoma became a state. It opens for tours and serves lunch on the first floor.
Batesville, Arkansas
Batesville is the oldest existing city in Arkansas. It lies on the White River, in the Ozark foothills. The Civil War spared its buildings. Downtown still has homes and storefronts from the 1840s. It is one of the largest National Register clusters in the state. The Melba Theater opened on Main Street in 1875. The Garrott House, from 1842, is the oldest home in town.
Lyon College was founded by Presbyterian ministers in 1872. Each fall it puts on the Arkansas Scottish Festival, with pipe bands and Highland games. The White River flows past town. Anglers come for the walleye and bass.
Galena, Kansas
Galena is the first Route 66 town across the Missouri line. A rusty tow truck at Cars on the Route, an old Kan-O-Tex station, is said to have inspired the character Mater in Pixar's "Cars." Visitors pose with it and grab a sandwich inside. The Galena Mining and Historical Museum is in the old Katy depot, with lead-mining tools and photographs. Downtown wears its boom years in ghost signs and murals. Galena incorporated in 1877, the oldest mining town in Kansas.
Schermerhorn Park follows Shoal Creek at the south edge of town. The ground here is pure Ozark, wooded hills over limestone. A cave in the park was long rumored to hide Jesse James. The Southeast Kansas Nature Center stands at the entrance.
Bonus Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Bentonville has Crystal Bridges, a free museum of American art founded by Alice Walton. It spreads over 134 acres of Ozark woods. Rockwells and O'Keeffes hang inside, with sculpture along the trails. Next door is the Scott Family Amazeum, a hands-on children's museum. On the square, the Walmart Museum tells the story of the retailer headquartered here.
The town calls itself the Mountain Biking Capital of the World. The Coler preserve and a web of trails back up the claim. Nearly two dozen city parks add more ground. Tom Walton, a Walton heir and avid cyclist, helped pay for the trails.
The Pull of the Ozarks
Each of these towns is built for a stop, not a pass-through. Claremore has Will Rogers and a vault of old guns. Batesville shows off a downtown the Civil War somehow missed. Grove has a big lake and rhododendrons that peak in spring. Most of them fit inside an afternoon, so a single trip can take in several. The real trip is the stretch of road that links them.
