Small boats and a sailboat on a wide lake under a warm evening haze, wooded ridge behind — Pleasure boats on the main Osage arm of the Lake of the Ozarks at Horseshoe Bend, July 1973 (Documerica). Bill Kuykendall · Public domain

Netflix · 2017–2022 · four seasons

Set here MissouriThe real Lake of the Ozarks, 1973

Ozark

Shot there GeorgiaLake Allatoona, mirrored

The Byrdes wash money on the Lake of the Ozarks. The cameras mostly stayed in Georgia, on Lake Allatoona, Lake Lanier and all over Atlanta. Both lakes are real, and you can visit them.

Jason Bateman in a dark jacket, looking just off camera — Jason Bateman, Marty Byrde in the series, in March 2018, during its run. MTV UK · CC BY 3.0

Laura Linney smiling, with long red-blonde hair, in a black blouse embroidered with two white swans — Laura Linney, Wendy Byrde in the series, at the Berlin Film Festival, February 2017. Maximilian Bühn · CC BY-SA 4.0

Julia Garner with curled blonde hair pinned up, in a dark top, against a yellow and blue backdrop — Julia Garner, Ruth Langmore in the series, at the Berlin Film Festival, February 2020. Harald Krichel / WikiPortraits · CC BY-SA 3.0

The grade

Pull the gel.
Wash out the gold.

Two photographs of the real Lake of the Ozarks, taken for the government’s Documerica project in 1973. Pull a cyan gel down over one.

Billboards, cars and a Bagnell Dam Union Electric sign at the end of a commercial strip, wooded hills behind — The Bagnell Dam end of the Strip in May 1973, photographed for the EPA’s Documerica project. Bill Kuykendall · Public domain

Pull the gel 0%

The Strip, May 1973, in its own warm colours.

Cinematographer Ben Kutchins describes a very cold, cyan look. With the colourist Tim Stipan, he turns the region’s golden and green tones a harsh blue.

Most of the series takes place in Osage Beach, on the Lake of the Ozarks; some shots of the lake itself are used, but most of the filming happened in Georgia.

Sources

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Lake of the Ozarks boat tours

Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri

Live marketplace results for boat tours and cruises on the real lake. Check what each one covers.

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Missouri State Parks

Ha Ha Tonka State Park

Near Camdenton, Missouri

Trails and boardwalks to castle ruins above the Lake of the Ozarks and Missouri’s 12th-largest spring. Not in the series; Netflix’s own guide says go anyway.

Plan a visit

The wash

One lake dollar.
Five fronts.

A financial adviser moves his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks, where he must launder $500 million in five years. He needs businesses. Here are five from the series. Run the bill through one and see where it really was.

0 of 5 fronts washed

Pick a front, then run the bill through it.

Nothing washed yet. The bill is still dirty.

Sources for the wash

Little River Marina

Rent a boat at Little River Marina

Lake Allatoona, Georgia

Take a pontoon, ski boat, paddle board or kayak out on Lake Allatoona from the marina that gave the Blue Cat Lodge its interiors and exteriors.

See rentals

Savannah Riverboat Cruises

River Street, Savannah

Sightseeing, brunch, lunch and dinner cruises from the riverfront that played the Big Muddy’s mooring.

See cruises

The midpoint

The sign went home.

The Blue Cat Lodge is the Byrdes’ first front. It was built in one state, modelled on another, and its sign ended up back where the story is set.

Modelled onAlhonna, Missouri
Built atLittle River Marina, Georgia
The sign hangs inAlhonna, Missouri

A wide lake under summer clouds, rocks in the foreground and long covered boat docks across the water — Lake Allatoona in June 2023, with a marina’s covered docks across the water. Thomson200 · CC0

Georgia · Lake Allatoona

Little River Marina

In the first episodes of season one, the marina gave the Blue Cat Lodge both its interiors and its exteriors.

The Blue Cat Lodge set later became a real restaurant, J.D.’s on the Lake.

Sources

Missouri · Horseshoe Bend

Alhonna Resort & Marina

The resort in the series is based on Alhonna Resort & Marina, where the show’s creator, Bill Dubuque, worked as a dockhand in the 1980s.

The resort tells it this way: a kid who pumped gas and fished off its docks grew up, wrote Ozark and named the fictional resort the Blue Cat Lodge. Alhonna named its own restaurant after it. The Blue Cat Lounge is home to a neon Blue Cat Lodge sign that appeared in the series.

Sources

859 km apart, as the crow flies.

Alhonna Resort

Alhonna Resort & Marina

Lake Ozark, Missouri · Open all year · Visit Missouri lists $98 to $500 a night

The family resort on Horseshoe Bend that inspired the Blue Cat Lodge, where Bill Dubuque was a dockhand. Motel rooms to four-bedroom lakefront cabins, two pools, a beach and the Blue Cat Lounge.

See the resort

Off the dock

Cast a line
as far as Missouri.

You’re standing on the dock at Little River Marina, where the Blue Cat Lodge was filmed. Pay out line, and see how far the real lake is.

Lake AllatoonaGeorgia
Lake LanierGeorgia
The Savannah RiverGeorgia
Lake of the OzarksMissouri
Horseshoe BendMissouri
Ha Ha TonkaMissouri

0 of 6 waters fished

Pay out line from the dock at Little River Marina.

The bait box is full. Nothing caught yet.

Sources for the line

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Savannah river cruises

Savannah

Live marketplace results for cruises on the Savannah River.

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Chateau Elan

Chateau Elan Winery & Resort

Braselton, Georgia

The resort that filmed season one, episode eight: a guest room, the poolside cabana and the restaurant and bar. 3,500 acres of vineyard and pine forest, with a spa and golf.

See the resort

Costume department

Atlanta, in character.

Atlanta plays half the map: Chicago, Mexico, a cartel estate. Ask each one who it really is.

Lake Clara Meer in Piedmont Park, with the Midtown Atlanta skyline, May 2024. Frank Schulenburg · CC BY-SA 4.0
Chicago
In character as: Chicago.
The entrance arch at Plaza Fiesta, June 2018. HispaFacts101 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Mexico
In character as: Mexico.
The front of Westview Abbey, the mausoleum at Westview Cemetery, September 2014. Carsonmc · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Navarro estate
In character as: The Navarro estate.
Lowry Hall at Oglethorpe University, September 2015. Marc Merlin · CC BY-SA 4.0
Season four’s campus
In character as: Season four’s campus.

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Atlanta film and TV location tours

Atlanta

Live marketplace results for film and TV tours of Atlanta, the city that played Chicago and Mexico. Check which places each one visits.

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Aerial view of a long concrete dam across a blue lake between wooded hills — Bagnell Dam from the air, March 2011, with the Lake of the Ozarks behind it. KTrimble (talk) · CC0

Bagnell Dam, Missouri

The lake is real.

The Union Electric Light and Power Company of St. Louis built Bagnell Dam between 1929 and 1931. It made the Lake of the Ozarks, one of America’s largest man-made lakes.

On 31 August 2016 a crew filmed Ozark outside Richard’s Relic Shack on the Bagnell Dam Strip, with half of Bagnell Dam Boulevard closed and police directing traffic.

Sources

Stone Mountain Park

Summit Skyride

Stone Mountain, Georgia · Daily, weather permitting · Skyride-only tickets on the day

A Swiss cable car more than 825 feet up to the top of Stone Mountain. It runs daily, closing in high winds and lightning.

Plan the ride

Stone Mountain Park

Stay at Stone Mountain Park

Stone Mountain, Georgia

The park where the Missouri Belle riverboats came from has a campground with yurts and a lakeside resort inside its 3,200 acres.

See where to stay

Where it is now

13 places you can visit: three on the real lake in Missouri, the rest in Georgia. All are public; at Westview, remember it is a working cemetery.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The Strip runs along Bagnell Dam Boulevard from the dam. Shops, pubs and arcades; park and walk.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. At the end of Horseshoe Bend. Open all year; the Blue Cat Lounge is open to guests and locals, by car or by boat.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Trails and boardwalks link the castle ruins, the spring and the bluffs. Check the park’s page for tours.

Bagnell Dam from the air, March 2011, with the Lake of the Ozarks behind it. KTrimble (talk) · CC0
Missouri (set here) · Bagnell Dam Boulevard, Lake Ozark, Missouri
Bagnell Dam and the Strip
Most of the series takes place in Osage Beach, on the Lake of the Ozarks; some shots of the lake itself are used, but most of the filming happened in Georgia.
The Strip runs along Bagnell Dam Boulevard from the dam. Shops, pubs and arcades; park and walk.
Sources
Pleasure boats on the main Osage arm of the Lake of the Ozarks at Horseshoe Bend, July 1973 (Documerica). Bill Kuykendall · Public domain
Missouri (set here) · 677 Outer Drive, Lake Ozark, Missouri (Horseshoe Bend)
Alhonna Resort & Marina
The resort in the series is based on Alhonna Resort & Marina, where the show’s creator, Bill Dubuque, worked as a dockhand in the 1980s.
At the end of Horseshoe Bend. Open all year; the Blue Cat Lounge is open to guests and locals, by car or by boat.
Sources
The ruins of the Snyder family castle at Ha Ha Tonka State Park, June 2009. Darin House from Missouri, USA · CC BY 2.0
Missouri (set here) · Near Camdenton, Camden County, Missouri
Ha Ha Tonka State Park
Not in the series: Netflix’s own Ozark guide says the castle ruins are too good to skip, about 12 minutes’ drive from the lake.
Trails and boardwalks link the castle ruins, the spring and the bluffs. Check the park’s page for tours.
Sources

Stay

Sleep by the water.

The resort that inspired the Blue Cat, the winery from season one, or a yurt at Stone Mountain.

Alhonna Resort

Alhonna Resort & Marina

Lake Ozark, Missouri · Open all year · Visit Missouri lists $98 to $500 a night

The family resort on Horseshoe Bend that inspired the Blue Cat Lodge, where Bill Dubuque was a dockhand. Motel rooms to four-bedroom lakefront cabins, two pools, a beach and the Blue Cat Lounge.

See the resort

Chateau Elan

Chateau Elan Winery & Resort

Braselton, Georgia

The resort that filmed season one, episode eight: a guest room, the poolside cabana and the restaurant and bar. 3,500 acres of vineyard and pine forest, with a spa and golf.

See the resort

Stone Mountain Park

Stay at Stone Mountain Park

Stone Mountain, Georgia

The park where the Missouri Belle riverboats came from has a campground with yurts and a lakeside resort inside its 3,200 acres.

See where to stay

Go there

Get on the water.

A boat from the Blue Cat’s marina, a riverboat in Savannah, a cable car up Stone Mountain, and the castle ruins Netflix says not to miss.

Little River Marina

Rent a boat at Little River Marina

Lake Allatoona, Georgia

Take a pontoon, ski boat, paddle board or kayak out on Lake Allatoona from the marina that gave the Blue Cat Lodge its interiors and exteriors.

See rentals

Stone Mountain Park

Summit Skyride

Stone Mountain, Georgia · Daily, weather permitting · Skyride-only tickets on the day

A Swiss cable car more than 825 feet up to the top of Stone Mountain. It runs daily, closing in high winds and lightning.

Plan the ride

Savannah Riverboat Cruises

River Street, Savannah

Sightseeing, brunch, lunch and dinner cruises from the riverfront that played the Big Muddy’s mooring.

See cruises

Missouri State Parks

Ha Ha Tonka State Park

Near Camdenton, Missouri

Trails and boardwalks to castle ruins above the Lake of the Ozarks and Missouri’s 12th-largest spring. Not in the series; Netflix’s own guide says go anyway.

Plan a visit

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