This is the thirty-ninth article in our series about Ozarks culture and heritage in the counties of Missouri that are part of the Ozarks region. All or parts of 55 counties in Missouri are considered part of the Ozarks. Dallas County is located directly west of LaClede County. Dallas County was organized in 1844, and was named for George M. Dallas, U. S. Vice President under James K. Polk . The county seat is Buffalo. Dallas County is part of the Springfield, Missouri, Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Dallas County was first organized in 1841 as Niangua County after the river which bisects it south to north. In 1844 it was renamed Dallas County after the U. S. Vice President. Settled in the 1830s by pioneers primarily from Tennessee, Indiana, and Ohio, Dallas County is part of territory ceded by Osage Indians in 1808.
Buffalo, the county seat, was founded in 1841 on Buffalo Head Prairie. The prairie, and subsequently the town, was named for a buffalo skull landmark erected by the first settler, Mark Reynolds, in 1833 near the present junction of U. S. Highway 65 and Missouri Highway 32.
Dallas County is unique in having a wide variety of soils and topography from very productive, smooth prairie and river bottoms to rolling grass and rough timber land. Grass grows in abundance and more milk is produced in a 70-mile radius of Springfield than in any other area of the world.
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