Laurie, MO

Laurie is a city in southern Morgan County with a small slice extending into Camden County, just north of Lake of the Ozarks. Missouri Route 5 runs through town, with Sunrise Beach a few miles to the southeast and Gravois Mills to the north. The ridge setting matters: Laurie sits above the lake country, and water drains away in several directions toward the reservoir.

The town grew around the Laurie family’s 1937 grocery store and filling station on Highway 5 at Route O. The store became Laurie Market, the only place in the area with a telephone and drilled well, and nearby families used both. A sawmill followed, then a post office in 1961; Laurie incorporated in 1966. Today the city’s story is a mix of lake recreation, highway traffic, and that old service-stop role. The local scoop is a town that began with a store, a phone, and a shared well, then became a gateway community above Lake of the Ozarks.