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Spotlight on Lake of the Ozarks: Visitor's guide to boating, lake homes, history, tourism and more!
May 22, 2024
This video is about Lake of the Ozarks in central Missouri. It's a huge lake with every amenity that you can dream of, and it has everything from theme parks to waterfront homes. "LOZ" is where it's at.
In this video:
0:00 - Lake of the Ozarks Info
0:24 - Size of Lake of the Ozarks
0:54 - History of Lake of the Ozarks
1:34 - Water Level at Lake of the Ozarks
2:11 - Lake Front Homes on Lake of the Ozarks
2:36 - Terrain & Geography Around LOZ
3:09 - Naming History of Lake of the Ozarks
3:59 - Tourism at LOZ
4:28 - 4th of July on Lake of the Ozarks
5:18 - State Parks at LOZ
5:40 - Boat Races on Lake of the Ozarks
7:25 - Ozark (The Show)
7:57 - Boating on Lake of the Ozarks
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0:00
What's up, everybody, it's Simon from LakeHub and today I'm out on the
0:04
Legendary Lake of the Ozarks. This has quickly become one of my new favorite lakes in the entire country
0:12
This is my first time here and I gotta tell you I'm hooked. This is a great lake not
0:20
Literally one of the great lakes, but you know what I mean. Lake of the Ozarks is
0:26
54,000 acres and 90 miles of awesomeness 90 miles that's like almost all the way to Truman Reservoir a
0:35
lot of folks say 60 70 50 miles range. That's like kind of where all this stuff is and that's where the lake is
0:44
But you know, it's a river lake and it snakes like a river lake
0:49
And so it kind of goes and goes and goes and goes like a river lake, too
0:53
Lake of the Ozarks was built in the 1920s and 30s from the Osage River and the
0:59
2,000 foot plus Bagnale Dam. There's a lot of tourist activity down by the dam
1:05
There's a million dollar row, you know all these super high dollar waterfront houses
1:11
in fact There are a ton of waterfront houses as you can see just even right around in this back arm where I'm at right now
1:20
There is waterfront property all the way around the lake Reason why is because it's not a flood control lake it was built
1:29
specifically for hydropower originally for Kansas City and then st. Louis so because of that because of
1:37
not being a flood control lake then then really the the water height the elevation it does fluctuate quite a bit in the wintertime as
1:49
You know precipitation all that kind of stuff in the springtime accumulates
1:54
Summer fills up and then slowly the lake drains and of course
1:59
The hydro plant needs the water volume So they're gonna take from the lake take from the lake take from the lake
2:05
But it does allow things like docks seawalls and all kinds of good stuff along the lakefront as a matter of fact
2:12
there are over 70,000 waterfront homes on Lake of the Ozarks those homes are spread out over a
2:20
Thousand miles of shoreline just because of the snaky serpentine nature of the lake because of the shape of the lake
2:27
This lake has long been nicknamed the Missouri dragon That's like the most metal name ever for a lake right so you can guess from the name that we are in the Ozarks
2:41
So you can expect very hilly terrain These are the lower Ozarks the northern end of the Ozarks that extend down into Arkansas
2:50
Where they are actually mountains these are kind of the older smaller
2:55
Northern end right so there's there's actually like a ton of caves and stuff around here
3:00
But the mountains are less pronounced they are bit is it is very very hilly
3:06
around the lake Hence the name so the lake was originally called Lake Osage from the river those at River
3:13
And then it was called Lake Benton after Thomas Hart Benton senator Thomas Hart Benton
3:20
one of Andrew Jackson's homies who also has a Lot of namesakes in the area so there is a Benton, Missouri. There's a Benton County, Missouri
3:32
There's a Benton, Kentucky. There is a Benton, Tennessee I've been to all of them this year all of them. I've been to all the Benton's so it was officially called Lake Benton
3:43
but publicly demand Everybody just started calling it Lake of the Ozarks because of its location
3:52
And it's stuck. I like that. That's that's a Pure pure democracy isn't it so just because of the waterfront nature of this lake and the enormity
4:03
I mean just this grand scale of it and of course. It's it's perfect position between st
4:09
Louis and Kansas City and northern, Missouri This is a Tourism hotspot, I mean just people from all over all look all across the Midwest
4:21
Of course all over Missouri in those two cities But I'm talking Kansas and Nebraska and all over the place right as you can expect from any lake
4:30
the 4th of July any of the holidays really, but the 4th of July is just
4:36
Bonkers out here. I mean the main channel the main channels kind of crazy anyway just on any old summer weekend, but
4:43
4th of July, it's just bananas Anderson Cove, which is like the official unofficial party Cove has an estimated
4:52
3,000 boats all tied up on the 4th of July every year 3
4:59
Thousand boats I'm pretty sure that's More than most navies at the time of its being built Lake of the Ozarks was the biggest
5:08
man-made lake in the United States of America And one can safely assume that it was a huge contribution
5:16
To the Midwest as far as electricity goes Lake of the Ozarks is also home to the
5:23
17 thousand five hundred acre Lake of the Ozarks State Park, which is by far
5:31
Missouri's biggest state park. It is also home to another state park. Haha Tonka State Park, which is
5:37
That's cool name. I like it Simon approved towards the end of summer late August
5:42
The lake is also home to the shootout, which is a like a massive
5:49
Basically, it's a it's an officially unofficial Charity powerboat race weekend and we haven't talked about it a lot on this channel
5:59
but Simon loves motorsports and Simon boat races Boat racing is like one of the coolest things ever if you've never seen it, especially drag boats unlimited hydroplanes
6:13
Drag boats if you can see those two things in your lifetime Good on you now for drag boats
6:19
If you could see some top fuel drag boats go just I think everybody needs to see one run of a top fuel dragster
6:27
from the shore it is Absolutely bananas it is absolutely bananas we're talking thousands of horsepower
6:38
Three four second quarter miles 240 plus 250 miles an hour sometimes even faster
6:47
Regularly over 200 miles an hour in a quarter mile in a boat from in the water like
6:55
standstill till What? It's crazy. You you just have to see it. You have to see it to know what I'm talking about
7:03
It'll rattle your feelings. It's amazing, Missouri has a ton of boat racing fans
7:10
It is home to like some dedicated boat racing lakes and everything like that
7:14
It's it's a lot of racing teams are out here. And so there's a lot of racing fans in Missouri. I
7:21
Gotta tell you boat racing is just one of the coolest things you've ever seen in recent history
7:25
Lake of the Ozarks was obviously made popular by the Netflix series
7:32
Ozark From what I've seen it hasn't actually it's it's it's Definitely bumped the interest level, you know
7:41
But it hasn't actually brought more tourism dollars year over year to the lake
7:46
but it is interesting that it's now like kind of in in the what the gist shelf of
7:54
Pop culture. I think that's pretty cool out here. You will see
7:59
Every kind of boat. I mean you will see everything from every kind of jet ski
8:05
Every style of pontoon boat every style of cruising boat power boats
8:10
Just all kinds of famous people live on this lake or not live on this lake. They have lake homes. Let's be honest
8:17
They don't they're not living out here. They're taking a helicopter in here one or two weekends a year But it is it's a hopping
8:24
Happening place to be like the Ozarks got it. Check it out
8:29
I'm Simon from like up and we will see you next time
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