Douglas County

The monastery that closes the plaque has changed hands since it became an abbey. Its first monks came to the hills southeast of Ava in 1950 from New Melleray Abbey in Iowa, and for decades the community supported itself by baking fruitcakes, about 30,000 a year by one magazine's count, sold worldwide and through the Williams-Sonoma holiday catalog. As the Trappist community shrank, it handed the monastery in 2019 to a group of Cistercian monks from Vietnam. The abbey lies about seventy-five miles southeast of Springfield.

What the plaque says

Douglas County Here in the heartland of the Missouri Ozarks, Douglas County was organized in 1857, and named for statesman Stephen A. Douglas. Southern pioneers, attracted by forested hills, abundant game, spring-fed streams, fertile valleys, were first settlers in mid-1830's. Some 692 prehistoric mounds have been found in the county which is in territory long utilized by various Indian tribes and claimed by the Osage until 1808. Ava, the county seat, was laid out 1870, and named for a Biblical city by James Hailey who with Judge Martin and Lock Alsup selected the site. Ava was founded to succeed Arno which replaced Vera Cruz, first county seat, when it lost its central location by county boundary change. A later change left Ava 12 miles off center. Ava's first post office moved there, 1872, from near by Militia Springs where a body of Union troops wintered in the Civil War. During the war, Douglas County, largely pro-Union, suffered a number of skirmishes, several occurring in and near Vera Cruz, headquarters of Home Guard unit. Through the war, guerrilla bands roamed the area. (See other side) Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission, 1961 Douglas County (Continued from other side) Douglas County's cultivated hillsides and valleys supporting fine dairy and livestock farms contrast with its timber producing hills and ridges. Much of the county area which was harvested during the lumbering boom of the early 1900's lies in Mark Twain National Forest established in 1930's. Lead and zinc have been mined in the county. By 1910, the agricultural and lumbering productivity brought Kansas City, Ozark & Southern Railroad. Built from Mansfield through Bryant to Ava, it had an uneven success and ceased operation, 1935. Among early settlements were Rome, Topaz, and Arno. Communities founded after the Civil War include Drury, Squires, Denlow, Sweden, and Vanzant. Among later settlements are Brushyknob and Smallett. Douglas County, lying in a resort region, is noted for scenic forest drives, springs, and streams including Bryant and Beaver creeks and Little North Fork River. In an area of great scenic beauty southeast of Ava is monastery of Cistercian Monks of the Strict Observance (Trappists) dating from 1950, made Assumption Abbey, 1956. Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission, 1961

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home & Museum (Rocky Ridge Farm) — 11 mi
  The Mansfield ridge farm where Laura and Almanzo Wilder lived from 1894, with the farmhouse Almanzo built and the Rock House where Laura, at 65, wrote the first Little House books.
• Glade Top Trail National Forest Scenic Byway — 15 mi
  Twenty-three miles of CCC-built gravel ridge road south of Ava through some of the largest managed glades in the country, with overlooks reaching to the Boston Mountains of Arkansas.

More markers nearby

• Wright County — 22 mi
• Ozark County — 27 mi