Bootheel
Crowley's Ridge gives Stoddard County its high ground
Crowley's Ridge is the reason the county is not all flat Bootheel cropland, and it explains why the seat and several towns sit where they do, on dry, higher ground above the former swamp.
Most of the Bootheel is flat, drained lowland, but a band of higher ground called Crowley’s Ridge crosses Stoddard County and rises noticeably above the surrounding plain. The ridge is an unusual landform, capped with windblown silt (loess) over older deposits, and it gave early settlers dry, well-drained ground when the lowlands around it were still swamp. That is a large part of why Bloomfield, the county seat, sits where it does rather than out on the flats. For someone trying to read the landscape, the ridge explains the difference between hilly, wooded country and the dead-level cropland just a few miles away. The state geological survey is the authoritative source for how the ridge formed and what soils sit on it.
References
Where this fits: this note belongs to Stoddard County. See every local note for the county on its page.