Farms to Playground: The State Park and the Ozark Show
Near Lake Of The Ozarks, Missouri
The largest state park in Missouri wraps around a big stretch of this shoreline, and it exists because of a New Deal experiment in remaking poor land. In nineteen thirty four, in the depths of the Depression, the federal government began turning worn out, sub marginal farmland near the new lake into a Recreational Demonstration Area, one of only forty six such projects in the nation. Crews from three Civilian Conservation Corps camps built roads, group camps, and a landscaped public beach.
In nineteen forty six the land was handed over to the state, and it became Lake of the Ozarks State Park. Land that could barely grow a crop was reborn as a place for families to swim, camp, and hike. Decades later the lake got a very different kind of fame.
The Netflix crime drama Ozark told the story of a money launderer hiding out at the Lake of the Ozarks, and the show drew international attention to the region. Here is the twist locals love to point out. Almost none of it was filmed here.
To chase tax breaks, the production shot mostly on lakes near Atlanta, Georgia. Even so, the show raised the lake's profile among the many tourists who come each year to a lake that began as flooded farms and drowned towns.
