The spring issue of OzarksWatch Magazine will be back from the printer soon, ready for distribution to subscribers and sales to the general public.

The theme of this issue is Ozarks Treasures.

As Susan Croce Kelly notes in her managing editor’s overview, “Almost from the time that Hernando de Soto trekked across the southern Ozarks, there have been stories of treasures hidden in our Ozark hills, secreted in caves, or buried deep in the woods. All those stories of Spanish gold, missing Civil War payrolls, and stolen bank deposits may be true – or they may not. What IS true, though, is that there are treasures hiding in plain sight across the region – or if not in plain sight, they are readily available to look at, listen to, read, or otherwise explore. In other words, these treasures are just waiting for you to show up or log in. And for the most part, they’re free.”

This issue contains a plethora of treasures:

• Jason McCollom has a piece about the new Ozarks Heritage Research Center on the West Plains campus of Missouri State University, with its stunning, massive mural painted by Farley Lewis.
  
  
• Haley Frizzle-Green has a piece about RadiOzark Enterprises, a radio transcription service that flourished right here in the Crossroads of Country Music during the mid-twentieth century. 
  
  
• Curtis Copeland describes some of the treasures to be found at the College of the Ozarks at Point Lookout. 
  
  
• Crystal Payton has a piece about the fabulous Payton Collection of Ozarks images and artifacts that she and her husband Leland amassed over the years. The Collection is becoming a major new component of the collections of the Ozarks Studies Institute at Missouri State University. 
  
  
• Mike O’Brien describes the visual treasures to be found in Bob Linder’s photographs, which are being digitized and archived by the Springfield-Greene County Library District.  
  
  
• Carolyn Reno introduces us to the Mooney-Barker Drugstore Collection at the Shiloh Museum in Springdale, Arkansas. 
  
  

This issue also contains seven book reviews, including a review of the new biography of Si Siman researched and written by Kitty Ledbetter and Scott Siman, Si’s son.