Nowadays, the area comprises much of the Czech Republic. In Arkansas, the Italians founded Tontitown.Īnd for families of Czech heritage, the destination for many in southwest Missouri was Karlin.For around half a century, a collection of families relocated to the Polk County community from part of Europe known then as Bohemia. Hispanics have come to areas around Monett and Aurora. Some examples include Pulaskifield, where the Polish settled the Germans went to the likes of Rader, Lockwood, Billings and Freistatt. Pockets of immigrants have long chosen to leave all they’ve known and, out of the whole world, make the Ozarks their home. Keep reading to learn about a few Ozarks settlements that have long held haunted stories within their boundaries - as well as some that have simply ceased to be. Former communities where life was lived but today, where time has forgotten. There are many others in the traditional sense. Instead, their spirit is passed from one person to the next without need of proof - although in some cases, folks try time and again to meet the spooks.īut those aren't the only types of ghost towns hereabouts. Those 'they say' tales don't need hard facts to stay alive.

It was a recognized form of social entertainment, especially favored by people who did not hold with dancing or card playing.' The pioneers used to invite people to their cabins for the express purpose of swapping supernatural tales. 'But in the childhood of men and women still living, the telling of ghost stories was much more common than it is today. 'Nearly all of the old-time hillfolk are firm believers in ghosts and wandering spirits, although few adult males will admit this belief to outsiders nowadays,' wrote folklorist Vance Randolph in his book, 'Ozark Magic and Folklore,' in 1947. While ghosts and their stories age with time, their presence has been part of the region since before anyone nowadays came to be. That there are spirits who live thereabouts to scare and prove their presence in a variety of unwelcome ways.

Some of these ghost towns are, as old timers would say, hainted. The wispy wind gives voice to ghosts and the towns where they live throughout the region's hills and hollows. The blow and breeze of changing seasons in the Ozarks brings more than falling leaves and thermometers, or crackling fires and stories around the woodsmoke.

Map of ghost towns of missouri