Made It In the Timber: a Settlement History of the Fort Leonard Wood Region

Despite its isolation, tough, independent-minded pioneers from Tennessee and Kentucky gradually settled the land between the Big Piney River and Roubidoux Creek in southern Pulaski County, Missouri, beginning in the early nineteenth century. This book relates the settlement history and use of this beautiful but tenuous Missouri Ozark region from its initial exploration to its purchase by the U.S. Army just prior to World War II for the construction of Fort Leonard Wood. It is a story of a distinctly American-bred culture that took what the land provided to sometimes flourish, sometimes just survive, but in all things and at all times act with an autonomy that today defines the Ozark land and people. This book is presented to the people of Pulaski County by the U.S. Army Maneuver Support Center and Fort Leonard Wood in memory of those who came before.