The Doomsday Preppers Preaching Deep In the Ozark Mountains

Nestled in the American Midwest is an often overlooked region of dense forests and mountains: the Ozarks. A place where you can easily detach from society and must learn to fend for yourself, it’s no surprise the Ozarks are home to a few serious prepper communities, teaching and practicing survival skills—often with an eye toward the end times.

In 2021, VICE visited and spoke with some of the members of the Shofarians, a religious community of preppers based on Shofar Mountain in northwest Arkansas.

“It started out as an intentional community,” said leader Joe Fox, a retired Army Special Forces officer and self-styled SERE instructor (for survival, evasion, resistance, escape) who goes by “Pastor” and releases videos under his brand Viking Preparedness.

Fox and his wife, Sister Kate, opened their homestead as “a prepper retreat” in the Ozarks that suited people who “wanted to live in a way that would allow us to get closer to God,” he said. The community is not affiliated with any Christian denomination but rather has an approach that blends Judaism and Christianity. 

When discussing his community and its lifestyle in the Ozarks, Fox refused to disclose the number of people living there, stating it was “classified” information. “A few families” was as much as he’d reveal.

In the documentary, Fox described the Shofarians as “good guys.” “We don’t get to pick when bad things happen,” he said. “Bad guys get to pick.” Preparing for an attack was how the community cultivated some form of control. When asked how he identified a “bad guy,” Fox replied, “We’re biblically focused.”

“In the Bible, we can read about the end times, and I believe—we believe—we could be on the cusp of that.” He added that there were at least two places within the U.S.—New York City being one of them—that would be nuked. To him, this was a mere fact.

“It’s biblical,” he said.

“I call us neo-pioneers. We’re kinda like the Amish with guns,” Fox continued. “I see how people who are prepared for it can roll with the changes and do OK, and people who are just like ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe this happened,’ just get dealt with. And I don’t want to be dealt with.”

Viking Preparedness bills itself as teaching “preparedness in all its forms.” Said Fox, “Despite the fact that you don’t like the government, it’s gonna pretty much go along as it has, and so you oughta have a plan for that besides buckets of beans and rice and an arsenal of firearms. If I have $30 of disposable income, do I buy mutual funds or do I buy rice and beans? You should do both.”

The documentary also follows Bear Independent, a group led by T.J. Morris, who started posting videos on YouTube around five years ago “as a way to combat the noise and bad advice plaguing the preparedness industry.” The Bear Independent movement, he said, promises autonomy from the “system,” and in the film, he demonstrated first-aid techniques. 

Asked about the group’s relation to the Shofarians, Morris said the groups agreed to assist one another when “shit hits the fan.” However, “I’m not living for doomsday,” T.J. clarified. “I’m living for Tuesday.”

Like the Shofarians, Morris said he strived for self-sufficiency and preparedness as a form of life insurance. They also shared some religious perspectives, and Morris has released a number of videos teaching the Bible from a “Hebrew roots perspective.” “Everyone in this group would first and foremost acknowledge that Yeshua is Mashiach, that Jesus is the Christ,” he said. “But there’s something deeper here with what we’re doing here.”

“It is not physically possible for the government to take care of everybody in a large-scale crisis,” Morris said matter-of-factly. “Because of those experiences, we’ve been able to figure out how to address those needs for ourselves that should something happen, we’re not at the mercy of the government.”