That is the Mississippi Delta East of Poplar Bluff.

The change is remarkable; leave PB eastbound on 60, boom, it's a different, very flat, world.

Living south and southwest of Poplar Bluff is my idea of about as good as it gets.

It's rural in every way.

Watch the weather this weekend.  A few times every winter we get an "Alberta Clipper's that sweeps really cold arctic air in.  Mostly it doesn't last long, but I have lived through week long periods of unbroken temps well below 0F.

The personal property tax is annoying.  List your motor vehicles and trailers that require tags.  Do not include your freezer.

Tax on real estate ranges from ridiculously low, to high in the fancy parts of St. Louis and Jackson counties.

It's more complicated on farms with livestock.  On the other hand, property with ag exemption has extremely low taxes.  

The median property tax in Shannon County is about $400.

Here's a photo west of Eminence.  The Jacks Fork River is about 200 feet below my feet.  A gravel bar is visible in the distance -



A favorite place on the Gasconade in Wright County where I grew up -



Close to where I live now on the Mississippi River looking up river at Foley Landing just after high water -







I protest Bladeswitchers comment about the arts in the Ozarks and Missouri.  All that is needed to find it is to look around.  It might not be ensconced in marble halls in Thayer, but there is plenty of music and visual art going on.  Besides, there is merit in folks doing with what they have.

If one of my daughters leaves the KC region, I'll be down there, too, probably along Bryant Creek or the North Fork.

Bonus

Alley Spring -



Topaz Mill near where I grew up -




Tell your wife that trail riding is extremely popular.

South Central to Southwest.  Wright County is northwest of the location of the photo, two counties east of Springfield.  Mountain Grove is in an interesting location, sitting on the fall line; the creeks south of town drain into the White River drainage and eventually the Mississippi River just above the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers, creeks north of town drain into the Gasconade river, and then into the Missouri river.  The North Fork of the White River comes out of a little spring just southeast of town, one of my high school friends built a nice cabin just a little farther down at a spring on his folks place and lived there until he passed two years ago.

Trail riding, on horses, is available all over, some across farms, some on the many Conservation Areas all over the state, and in Mark Twain National Forest.  Horse shows and rodeos are also popular.  The Mark Twain NF in that region near West Plains has wild horses; I don't know the numbers these days, hopefully the Conservation Department is keeping them culled down.

Missouri has two organizations related to conservation and the outdoors.  The Department of Conservation regulates hunting and fishing and provides a tree nursery that is a great resource for low cost seedlings.  Conservation and Natural Areas fall under their responsibility.  The Department of Natural Resources controls the State Parks and gets into water conservation, air pollution, and so on.  Missouri voters elected to start a 1/8th cent sales tax to support the Conservation Dept in the late 70's, then later another 1/8th cent tax was added for the DNR.  This money has allowed the Dept of Conservation to build an impressive array of property across the state open to everyone; some of it is spectacular.  As priority projects were completed, ranges were built at Conservation Areas, ranging from rudimentary to fairly nice, and the far greater part of them are rural, free, and not monitored by a range officer (the urban ranges are under the heel of RO's, on the other hand).  The last few years have seen ranges near here get improvements such as concrete bench tops, and at least one not far from Jeff City has a shelter over the shooting positions.


Also has chiggers -

Next up:  hoop snakes and Behinders.
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A choice, chiggers or cancer, or clawing your skin to scratch the chigger bites ...

Very informative thread.

I too am looking at moving to southern MO, with northern AR and western TN also in the running at this point.

Looking for a fairly big chunk of land (40+ acres at minimum, over 120 would be excellent) with a mix of forest, cropland/pasture, flowing water &/or ponds, and a smaller house and outbuildings or a spot to put them.

How's the water situation there as far as wells go?  About 150' to 300' of fairly easy drilling here in eastern NE to hit the aquifer for nice tasting but hard water.

The trick with those birds is keeping them out of the road.

They're pretty good watch birds, too, and will raise a racket at anything that disturbs them.

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