Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Lake Ozark, MO

Lake Ozark is a young city in Miller and Camden counties that grew up beside Bagnell Dam, taking its name from the Lake of the Ozarks, the enormous reservoir completed beside it in 1931.

The Lake of the Ozarks was created by damming the Osage River: construction of Bagnell Dam began on August 8, 1929, and was completed in April 1931.

When it was finished, the Lake of the Ozarks covered about 54,000 acres and was the largest man-made lake in the United States.

The lake has roughly 1,150 miles of shoreline — more than the coastline of California — and the Lake of the Ozarks area draws more than 5 million visitors a year.

Bagnell Dam itself was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

The historic Bagnell Dam Strip along Bagnell Dam Boulevard is lined with shops, arcades and restaurants, and is watched over by two giant 'muffler man' statues known as Injun Joe and Country Bumpkin.

One of the city's oldest surviving buildings, known as the White House, was built in 1932, just after the dam was completed, and has been renovated in recent years.

Lake Ozark's post office has been in operation since 1932, the year after the lake filled.

Lake Ozark counted 2,077 residents in the 2020 census, up sharply from just 507 people in 1970.

The city had 919 households in 2020, and over half of its 1,887 housing units stood vacant — a measure of how many Lake Ozark homes are vacation and second homes.