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Missouri Counties

Missouri has 114 counties and one independent city. St. Louis City is separate from St. Louis County and is referred to as a "city not within a county."

Ozark County, Missouri

Ozark County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Gainesville
Year Organized: 1841
Square Miles: 747

Court House:

P.O. Box 416
County Courthouse
Gainesville, MO 65655-0416

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named for the Ozark Mountains. A mountain range that is very old as well as beautiful. The name is of Indian and French derivation and it is said that it is the result of a misunderstanding by the English. It means literally "at the (country, river, or place of the) Arkansas." The Quapaw Indians, belonging to the Siouan stock and after migrating westward, were called the Arkansas by the Illinois. Early eighteenth century maps by G. De. l'Isle show that both the Ohio and Wabash rivers were known as the Arkansas. It was customary for the French to abbreviate the difficult Indian place-names; hence les Arkansea became les Arcs. Miss O'Brien states that in the French archives "the phrase "aux arcs" appears many times, meaning on the river, at the post, or in the country of the Arkansas." The shortened phrase "aux arcs" was mistaken by the English for one word and they spelled it Ozark. (Miss O'Brien's thesis)

Source: Overlay, Fauna R. "Place Names Of Five South Central Counties Of Missouri." M.A. thesis., University of Missouri-Columbia, 1943.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Ozark County

Organized in 1841, cut off from Wayne County, of which it had been a part since Wayne was formed in 1818 from New Madrid County, Named from the Ozark Mountains. (See Bell, under Wayne)

Source: Bell, Margaret E. "Place Names In The Southwest Border Counties Of Missouri." M.A. thesis., University of Missouri-Columbia, 1933.

Neighboring Counties:

Insert Counties Here

Cities and Towns:

- Bakersfield	village	Incorporated Area
- Gainesville (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Theodosia	village	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

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