Branson
Branson is a small town in the Ozark mountains in southwest Missouri, famous as a major tourism center featuring clean entertainment with a Christian tone. The full-time population of 6400 operates over 50 live theaters, together with supporting restaurants, motels and museums. A major new airport opens in spring 2009, making the site more accessible to distant visitors.
Branson's three lakes and amusement park, Silver Dollar City, began attracting visitors in the 1950s-1960s, the city emerged in the 1980s as the country music perfomance capital, second perhaps only to Nashville. As a country music center, Branson evolved through three stages of development: use of local talent, introduction of nationally recognized veteran performers, and an infusion of a younger generation of stars. For the country music artist, Branson provides a music setting historically associated with traditional country music, an opportunity to perform on a regular basis in a permanent location, cultural and physical landscapes ideally suited for establishment of residence, and investment possibilities. For the country music fan, Branson's advantages over Nashville, Tennessee, include low-cost, family entertainment clustered in one area, multiple theaters with greater seating capacities, and additional tourist-oriented amenities.[1]
Branson has remained ethnically and religiously homogeneous and has used its image as a simple and safe country town with strong family values to attract increasing number of tourists. There is little liquor and no casinos or off-color venues.[2] Branson entrepreneurs wove Christian sentiment into a fabric of nostalgia, romantic traditionalism, and whitewashed rusticity that downplays the extreme hardships of mountain life and plays up 21st century family values.
Branson is the setting for The Shepherd of the Hills (1907), a novel by Harold Bell Wright that depicted the folklore of the Ozarks in romantic fashion. A dramatic version has been a major highlight for visitors since 1960.
External links
Further reading
- Ketchell, Aaron K. Holy Hills of the Ozarks: Religion and Tourism in Branson, Missouri (2008) excerpt and text search