Domesticating the Ozarks

Chapter 4 analyzes the taming or domesticating of the wilderness Ozarks by Anglo-American pioneers in the decades before the Civil War. This chapter discusses the effects of human habitation on the environment and on the region’s wildlife. It also covers such topics as hunting and trapping, log construction and material culture, rural folkways and foodways. A particular focus of the chapter is the introduction of an “extensive” style of agriculture in the Ozarks, one characterized by the raising of hogs and cattle on the open range and the growing of small patches of corn. By the end of the antebellum period, all but the most rugged and inaccessible areas of the Ozarks had undergone some degree of domestication.