Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Shell Knob, MO

Shell Knob is an unincorporated census-designated place, not an incorporated city, straddling Barry and Stone counties on the western arm of Table Rock Lake in the Missouri Ozarks.

The community began as Schell Knob, named for Henry Schell Sr., who established a trading post on the White River with his wife Elizabeth in 1835.

When the post office was established in 1872, the name was recorded as Shell Knob, with the letter 'c' dropped from the Schell family name.

In the 1890s the Shell Knob area's main industry was pearl buttons, made from pearls and shells taken from clams in the White River, and in the 1920s local tomatoes canned there were celebrated as the 'Red Gold of the Ozarks.'

Everything changed when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Table Rock Dam between 1954 and 1958, flooding the White River valley and turning Shell Knob into a lake resort community.

The Central Crossing Bridge, completed in 1960, carries Highway 39 across the lake at Shell Knob; until it opened, travelers and even schoolchildren were ferried across the new lake by boat.

The 2020 census counted 1,254 residents in the Shell Knob CDP, and Census Bureau survey estimates put the community's median age in the sixties, reflecting its popularity with retirees and vacation homeowners.

Shell Knob is the largest community on the quieter western side of Table Rock Lake and is served by marinas such as Campbell Point Marina, with boating, bass fishing, and scuba diving on the clear water.

A significant share of Shell Knob's homes are seasonal, and the little town swells with visitors during the summer holiday weekends.