Taney County, Missouri in the context of "Springfield metropolitan area, Missouri"

Branson is a resort city in the U.S. state of Missouri. Most of the city is situated in Taney County, with a small portion in the west extending into Stone County. Branson is in the Ozark Mountains. The community was named after Reuben Branson, postmaster and operator of a general store in the area in the 1880s. The population was 12,638 at the 2020 census, and its population constitutes nearly one fourth of the Taney County population.

Branson has long been a popular destination for vacationers from Missouri and around the country. The collection of entertainment theaters along 76 Country Boulevard (and to a lesser extent along Shepherd of the Hills Expressway), including Dolly Parton's Stampede, has increased Branson's popularity as a tourist destination. Branson is the site of the Branson Cross, the largest cross monument in North America.

The Bald Knobbers were a group of vigilantes in the Ozark region of southwest Missouri, United States from 1885 to 1889. They are commonly depicted wearing black horned hoods with white outlines of faces painted on them, a distinction that evolved during the rapid proliferation of the group into neighboring counties from its Taney County origins. The group got its name from the grassy bald knob summits of the nearby Ozark Mountains. The hill where they first met, Snapp's Bald, is located just north of Kirbyville, Missouri. An article in the October 5, 1898 issue of Springfield, Missouri's The Leader-Democrat states:

The Bald Knobbers, who for the most part had sided with the Union in the American Civil War, were opposed by the Anti-Bald Knobbers, who for the most part had sided with the Confederates. Hernando summarizes their political role: