"It's hard work. People have to think differently about how they tell their stories," Billings said.
Billings pointed out that the geology and geography of this area is a unique product of the soil, left behind by the retreating glaciers from the last ice age and the people who settled in this area.
During one of the presentations at the meeting, Christy Davis said that the groups need to find a way to tie all of the various areas of the Heritage Area together, and since there are no physical boundaries that encompass the entire area, she suggested that they consider looking at cultural watersheds, which correspond to river basins."
The problem is that there are physical boundaries between Missouri and Kansas. As author and Vernon County Missouri native Patrick Brophy points out in his book "Bushwhackers of the Border: The Civil War Period in Western Missouri"...
"Missouri, then , lies-or lay- in the Eastern Woodlands, while Iowa and eastern Kansas lie in the Prairie Plains"
Brophy continues:
"Even today Missouri is 34 percent forest, Kansas a bare two percent. Roughly, the timberline follows Missouri's northern and western edges; farther south it straggles off westward through eastern Oklahoma and middle Texas."
You can no more re-write Missouri's history, than you can its geography, though it's more than evident that the folks at Freedom's Frontier are trying none the less.
Clint E. Lacy- is a Friend of Freedom a Southern author and activist residing in the Ozark Foothills of Southeast Missouri.
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