Just returned from a few days at a lodge on Table Rock Lake about 10 miles south of Branson, MO. Lots of woods and water, but no mosquitos. I would have thought that area would have been think with them.
Do they not live/breed down that way?
Maybe there is tannin in the local surface water. Mosquitoes cannot breed in water that has a runoff source of tannin. This phenomenon occurs in the Amazon, where large areas are mosquito-free due to a source of tannin upstream. Tannin occurs in the bark of a wide variety of trees.
They’re over here.
For the first time in many years we have a bumper crop of hungry mosquitos this summer in western Montana. Experts say it’s the result of a wetter than normal spring, and a hotter than normal summer.
There is no mosquito abatement program here… although there really should be.
Breeding of most insects, animals, etc. is often cyclical. Here in Wisconsin, last year in May, there were so few mosquitoes that I was able to paint my house with nary a bite. Good thing, too, because this year I wouldn’t have attempted it they were so bad.
More mosquitoes equals more frogs, bats and dragonflies. Next year, we will probably have a surplus of those and the mosquitoes will be kept down.
And even though mosquitoes were bad in May and June, they seem to have disappeared in July, much earlier in the season than usual. So there are many factors and many of them are very local.
I’ve had no luck using them as organic microprocessors to boost my powers of cogitation. To be truthful, the buzzing in the ear is downright distracting. YRMV 
I have very little knowledge of US geography, but could it be that the area you were in was either very windy or had high elevation?
I know from experience that the Swedish countryside has tonnes of mosquitoes. So many, in fact, thatthey’re using helicopters to attack them. And yet you move a bit west into Norway, and you can go out in the wild without facing a single mosquito. The reason that’s usually given for this is that (a) Norway is windier, so mosquitoes can’t fly around easily, and (b) most of Norway is at a high altitude, where mosquitoes struggle.
Not sure if it’s true, but it sure sounds right!
Montana mosquitoes are really tiny compared to the critters we have here in Minnesota. The first time I encountered them I laughed really hard for a second, and then they formed themselves into a giant mosquito-shaped horde and attacked. Most aggressive mosquitoes I ever encountered, with really painful bites.
Minnesota has had a bumper crop of skeeters this year due to a late, wet spring, but the last couple of years we’ve had fairly light infestations because of a lack of rain. Is Missouri still in a drought?
The OP can camp out in my back yard for a real mosquito experience.
I swatted one over the weekend that could have turned up on Doppler radar.