Ozark Mountains, heavily forested group of highlands in the south-central United States, extending southwestward from St. Louis, Missouri, to the Arkansas River. The mountains occupy an area of about 50,000 square miles (130,000 square km), of which 33,000 square miles (85,500 square km) are in Missouri, 13,000 square miles (33,700 square km) in northern Arkansas, and the remainder in southern Illinois and southeastern Kansas. The Ozarks and the adjacent Ouachita Mountains represent the only large area of rugged topography between the Appalachians and the Rockies. The highest peaks, many exceeding 2,000 feet (600 m), are in the Boston Mountains in Arkansas. The highest point in Missouri is Taum Sauk Mountain (1,772 feet [540 m]), west of Ironton, in the St. Francois Mountains. The Ozark region, characterized by many underground streams and springs, is drained by the Osage, Gasconade, White, and Black rivers. Lake of the Ozarks, impounded by Bagnell Dam on the Osage River, provides power and recreation facilities. Taneycomo Lake, Bull Shoals Lake, and Table Rock State Park also are recreation areas.

Tourism, one of the region’s chief industries, was given impetus by Harold Bell Wright’s novel The Shepherd of the Hills (1907), which romanticized the Missouri Ozarks. Other economic assets include timber (mainly hardwoods), agriculture (livestock, fruit, and truck farming), and lead and zinc mining.

The word Ozark is probably a corruption of Aux Arc, the name of a French trading post established in the region in the 1700s.