paul durand more on the ozarks living

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Since offering a piece of land for sale, I've received scores of letters from sincere, good people who want to live simple, natural lives in the seclusion and beauty of a wild forest area. I agree with these folks' motives, and wish them all possible luck. . . but the tone of their correspondence reveals so much unrealistic wishful thinking that I doubt their chance of success.

For that reason, I would like to offer some facts for all potential homesteaders to consider before they actually buy property and try to make a go of rural living. Although what I have to suggest relates specifically to the Ozarks of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, I think most of it is relevant to any genuine "deep country" area.

The Ozarks is (or are) a beautiful wild region of several hundred square miles . . . mainly a land of low rolling hills covered with oaks and other types of trees. Summers are hot, winters are mild and short, and spring and fall are wonderful. Relatively few people live in the district. Towns are small and far apart, farms tend to be limited in cultivated area, and the majority of land holdings are just virgin forest, left idle and untouched for the most part. This is, in fact, one of the last sections of real "country" left in the U.S.

If you have a well-established source of income apart from the Ozarks (and are so constituted that you can thrive on solitude or the company of interesting guests from "outside"), you can live among our hills in peace and beauty . . . as close to nature as anyone could wish. But if you must rely on making money within the area—by selling craft items or garden produce, or by working full or part time—it's extremely unlikely that you'll make a go of homesteading in this or any other genuine "deep country" location. The advantages of suburbia simply don't coexist with true wilderness. In fact, it's their absence that gives such a region its character.

In most cases it's a myth that a person can settle in the depths of the country and maintain himself there. . . unless he or she is willing to devote him or her self to continual hard work, with little time to enjoy life or pursue whatever mental and cultural pleasures he or she favors. Only the rich can lead full, beautiful lives in a really wild area. Most others are enslaved to endless drudgery and penny-pinching. Think hard and realistically before you make the leap.