All These People Who Moved To Lake Of The Ozarks? They Might Not Be As Bad As You Think

There’s been a lot of talk over the past few years about the "Great Migration" to Lake of the Ozarks. It's a real thing: while most rural/small-town communities across the country have been shrinking, the Lake’s full-time population has been booming.

Ameren acknowledges it: they've been scrambling to upgrade infrastructure to handle the new levels of demand on the grid. The Great Migration is real.

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Mention this in casual conversation, and what you'll hear from lots of locals is concern. "I hope they don't bring their politics with them," they'll say of our Californian refugees. They worry the unique character of the Lake — the independent spirit, the pioneer toughness, the commitment to liberty, and the emphasis on local relationships — might be lost.

But I’m not so sure.

Because I’ve been meeting some of the people who moved here. And they’re exactly the kind of people I would have picked. Perhaps it’s what happens when you become known for being a certain way, people who are also that way become drawn to that place.

I met one family who moved here from Columbia, MO. When I asked them why: “We needed a change of pace.” He commutes to Jeff City and she works online. The Lake's conservative culture and less frenetic pace brought them, and neither needed to change careers.

Another family — homeschoolers with two kids — recently moved here from Charleston, SC. Why? “Freedom.” “Not a lot of that in Charleston?” I asked. “Nope,” he replied. He explained that, as a small-business owner in the construction industry, he had found the regulatory and planning/zoning environment of Charleston downright onerous and stifling. Beautiful place to visit, tough place to do business. So they came here, where family already living at the Lake boasted of the area's relative freedom and lack of oppressive regulations. (Camden County, take note.)

Yet another family moved here from the Columbia area, solely because they found a church at the Lake that matched their values. They relocated and started getting connected.

Now, admittedly, I met these three families at our church, so it's a pre-sorted pool of people I'm likely to like. But the similarity in their reasons for coming here was uncanny, and it gave me hope that maybe most of the people who came here over the past few years came here for similar reasons. The Lake's reputation precedes it, and people willing to uproot their families and flee local tyranny for a land of more freedom and opportunity... well, those are the kind of folks I'd have picked.

It recalls the old adage, "What you win them with is what you win them to." Let's not disappoint them.