Douglas County, in the heartland of the Missouri Ozarks, was organized in 1857 and named for statesman Stephen A. Douglas. Southern pioneers, attracted by forested hills, abundant game, spring-fed streams, and fertile valleys, were the first settlers in the mid-1830's. Some 692 prehistoric mounds have been found in the county, which lies in territory long utilized by various Indian tribes and claimed by the Osage until 1808. Ava, the county seat, was laid out in 1870 and named for a biblical city by James Hailey, who with Judge Martin and Lock Alsup selected the site. Ava was founded to succeed Arno, which had replaced Vera Cruz, the first county seat, when Vera Cruz lost its central location through a county boundary change; a later change left Ava 12 miles off center. Ava's first post office moved there in 1872 from nearby Militia Springs, where a body of Union troops wintered in the Civil War. During the war, Douglas County, largely pro-Union, suffered a number of skirmishes, several occurring in and near Vera Cruz, headquarters of a Home Guard unit, while guerrilla bands roamed the area throughout the conflict. Douglas County's cultivated hillsides and valleys supporting fine dairy and livestock farms contrast with its timber-producing hills and ridges. Much of the county area harvested during the lumber boom of the early 1900's lies in the Mark Twain National Forest established in the 1930's. Lead and zinc have been mined in the county. By 1910, agricultural and lumbering productivity had brought the Kansas City, Ozark, and Southern Railroad, built from Mansfield through Bryant to Ava, but it had uneven success and ceased operation in 1935. Among early settlements were Rome, Topaz, and Arno; communities founded after the Civil War include Drury, Squires, Denlow, Sweden, and Van Zant; later settlements include Brushyknob and Smallett. Douglas County, in a resort region, is noted for scenic forest drives, springs, and streams including Bryant and Beaver creeks and Little North Fork River. In an area of great scenic beauty southeast of Ava is a monastery of Cistercian Monks of the Strict Observance, dating from 1950 and made Assumption Abbey in 1956.