A few weeks ago, I took a drive several miles south of the Historic River District of Ozark, Missouri to meet Arianna Russell and her mom, Cheri.
Arianna Russell: “Nice to meet you.”
Holman: “So nice to meet you! Gregory, from KSMU Radio."
Arianna (speaking to a family dog): “Roger you want to come outside buddy?”
Holman: “Oh, hey!”
Arianna: “C’mon, bud.”
Holman: “Well, thank you for inviting me out to your farm, yeah!”
Arianna: “Welcome to the farm!”
Holman: “Yeah! I’m sorry I’m a little late. “
Arianna: “We thought about closing the gate, but we’re like, we’ll let him come in. I’m just kiddin’ [laughs].”
Holman: “[laughs] Well, it was a little more driving on country roads, and I’m like, Oh, suddenly I need to speed up here. Can we just sit out here? What’s going to work?
Arianna: “Chair?”
Holman: “Yeah, that would be great.”
(A metal patio chair clangs into place.)
Arianna: “You missed the deer a little big ago. We had about 5 to 6 deer that come from that direction every morning and every night.”
Holman: “Arianna, how big is your family’s farm?”
Arianna: “Thirty and one-half acres.
Holman: “And how long have they had it?
Arianna: “Since 1824.”
Holman: “1824… so you’re family’s an old Ozark family. Your family’s been in the Ozark area…”
Arianna: "...Almost 200 years this year. Would that be 200 years this year?
Holman: “You said 1824?”
Arianna: “Next year.”
Holman: “Next year. 200 years.”
Arianna: “We’re going to be 200 years old next year.”
In reporting for KSMU's Sense of Community about the small business people and culture of Ozark, Missouri, I encountered instances where business and family are tightly linked.
The Russell family and the Russell farm and the Russells’ other commercial ventures are strong examples of adaptability, resiliency — and longstanding tradition in the Ozark area. Here’s Arianna Russell again. She’s in her 30s and already a longtime business owner.
"Yeah," she says, "So my mom has had both of these businesses since before I was born, maybe since before my sister, who’s the first sibling, was born. That one is called Antiquing We Go and the other one is called Wicker Fixer and Chair Re-Caner.”
Arianna’s mom, Cheri Russell, soon came out of the farmhouse to clarify: “It’s 48 years for the Wicker Fixer, and 40 years for the Antiquing We Go. It’s a day or two.”
Antiquing We Go is a print brochure guide for treasure-hunters. I kept asking if there was really an audience for a print brochure these days. Cheri and Arianna assured me that for antique collectors, the answer is yes. In red and white type on tasteful herb green paper, Cheri maps out 95 antique shops in dozens of southwest Missouri communities.
As for the Wicker business, “They fix wicker furniture and do chair caning," Arianna said. "And there’s about 12 in the U.S. — less than 12 in the U.S. that do it."
Cheri says Arianna was literally born in the middle of a craft show she worked for the Wicker business. Labor and delivery didn’t stop Cheri’s working: “...That was on a Saturday, and then Sunday, I was out of the hospital and brought her and showed her off at the show.”
Over a decade ago, Arianna was an early adopter of the idea that smartphones needed durable cases with slots for credit cards. Her company Bodacious Cases made national headlines.
She’s also owned an auto detailing company, and she’s currently working on a plan to create a nonprofit community garden and share knowledge of fresh produce with kids and seniors. Here’s more from our conversation.
Holman: “The past 20 years, Arianna, as somebody whose family has been here 200 — how would you talk about Ozark and the development of the business side of the community?"
Arianna: “So, The Historic River District in Ozark has worked really hard to get the downtown specifically to where it’s at. They’ve added a new gazebo and really worked hard to get it to where it’s at.
“Now the northside corridor, is what it’s called, which is where Lambert’s and that area is at, is more developed than the south side which is like Walmart and Lowe’s and where Apple Market is. So right now, they’re really working on developing the south side, to make it more even.”
I talked to several other Ozark community leaders. Their opinions echoed Arianna’s. They all pointed to a small town leveraging longstanding resources to create new opportunities.
Some worried a bit about the development of bigger-box stores at the expense of mom-and-pop shops, but others felt Ozark is “right-sized” and balanced — at least for now.
A few days after meeting Arianna and Cheri Russell, I met Brent Hanks. He’s in his 50s, the scion of a local family of car dealers. We took a walk through the historic Finley Farms project developed by Bass Pro billionaire Johnny Morris in the Historic River District.
Hanks said of the Finley Farms campus, "Well, again, I grew up here, and I had never been back in this area, there wasn’t any reason to come back in here, growing up, it was just kinda woods and ticks and chiggers, so you didn’t come back in here.”
But now that’s changed. Seems like people are beginning to go to Ozark’s historic heart — in droves.
