Osage Beach: How a Dam Created a City
Near Lake Of The Ozarks, Missouri
Osage Beach exists because of a dam. In nineteen thirty-one the Union Electric Company completed Bagnell Dam on the Osage River, flooding the valley and creating the Lake of the Ozarks, which at the time was the largest manmade lake in the United States. The community that would become Osage Beach began as a small settlement called Zebra, founded in eighteen eighty-six and renamed Osage Beach in nineteen thirty-five.
Once the lake filled, the shoreline at this location became one of the most accessible recreation points on Route Fifty-Four, and fishing camps, cabins, and small businesses followed. The city was formally incorporated in nineteen sixty-five and grew steadily through the following decades into one of Missouri's primary resort destinations, drawing visitors from across the Midwest to the Osage arm of the lake. The community today wraps around marinas, entertainment strips, and waterfront real estate that would be farmland if not for the decision to dam the Osage River.
