You would be surprised how many are out there looking for a club.
We are in a desert for beer, but a friend of mine had the idea to start a club and we found there are 10-20 home brewers scattered about a small island (120,000 folks) in the first few months of starting the club. If you have 100,000 folks within a 45 minute to 1 hour drive from your place, you might find the same.
If I was to drive from Dallas to St. Louis I'm guessing it is a 10 hours drive and Joplin is close to the middle (4 to St Loius and 6 to Dallas)?
http://brewmaui.com/Brew Maui is only three months strong and we have a local brewpub that helps us with ingredients (no LHBS here), an internet guy, and varied group of folks interested in brewing with all different experience levels.
You never know until you ask around.