Shannon County is a synonym for wilderness, with a few small settlements scattered across the deep woods. It’s a great place to hide, or get lost.

From border to border, as the Jacks Fork River slices across its face, Shannon County is one of nature’s most entertaining theme parks, featuring some of the most remote regions in the Ozarks.

That’s why I like it, and I think ol’ Pegleg Shannon would like it, too. He’d be pleased that somebody named this county after him.

Judge George “Pegleg” Shannon—I don’t think anybody called him that to his face—would have a blast in this neck of the woods, assuming he wasn’t sick of rivers and caves and general exploring.

As a pup, this youngest member of Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery had a knack for getting lost. On one mission to round up the company’s stray pack horses, he returned to the wrong part of the Missouri River and stayed lost for two weeks.

Years later on another mission, he lost a leg. When it comes to getting lost in the woods, the county that bears his name would make him feel right at home.

–from Coastal Missouri