Ozark Folk Magic is one of the richest and most fascinating of the American Folk Magic traditions. The Ozark region of Missouri and Arkansas has long been an enclave many of the old-time superstitions and customs that have been nurtured and kept alive through the area’s relative isolation and the strong attachment of the hill-folk to the hills and hollers of their home.

 

Though modern science and education have been making important inroads in the last few decades, the region is still a fertile source of quaint ideas, observances, and traditions that have sustained them over the centuries.

People of the hills are normally reticent about their deepest beliefs, especially with outsiders. The people who live and have lived in the Ozarks come from much of the same line of ancestors as the Appalachian folk. These include cultures of Scottish, Irish, Native American, and some German descent. So we could assume that Ozark Folk Magic is very similar to Appalachian Granny Magic. The main difference between them really comes down to the hill folks of the Ozarks and their rich beliefs in their superstitions.

 

 

 

This blend of superstitions and magical practices have been passed down from generation to generation of families living in the Ozarks as well as their Appalachian cousins.

Much of Granny Magic involved everyday household items and chores and are not necessarily elaborate rituals but very practical routines.

 

 

For example, they would hang a horseshoe over their doorway to prevent evil spirits from entering. This practice most likely comes from the Irish immigrants, as they believed iron and other metals would ward off mischievous spirits and faeries.

 

Another way to keep spirits at bay in the Ozarks as well as the Appalachians was to sprinkle salt over the hearth fire or wear a rabbit’s foot. To this day many people all over the U.S. will carry a rabbit’s foot on a key chain for good luck.

 

 

 

Healing ailments was also a big practice in Ozark Folk magic and Granny Magic. Most of the families and individuals living in the hills and hollers of the Ozarks were not rich folk, so doctors were not common. The next best thing was to consult the local “granny” or midwife in order to acquire a healing remedy. Herbs from the garden, alcohol, and other household items were used in granny’s healing magic.

 

 

Cures, Tinctures and Potions

The following is a collection from our readers of common Ozark Folk Magic cures and potions that have been passed down to them from the generations before. A huge THANK YOU to the good folks in the Facebook group Ozarks Alive: Folklore and History for some of these awesome potions and cures that have been passed down to them! 

( Note: Arkansas Outdoor Country Magazine does not endorse ANY of these cures, potions etc. ALWAYS have common sense and go to the doctor before beginning any treatment of any kind. )

 

Steve Muse – Bacon grease or lard mixed with baking soda soothes wasp sting pain instantly. If you’re allergic, it won’t save you.

 

Cale Smith – Whiskey and honey for a cough. Put chewing tobacco on a bee or wasp sting.

 

Janet Garrison Ruby – We used turpentine on everything especially with colds and bronchitis. We made a chest rub with 2/3 grease and 1/3 turpentine. Only today i use vicks and turpentine. It’s turpentine you get at a real pharmacy though, not from the paint aisle.

 

Betty Coffman – Mix lard and a crushed up aspirin and some iodine together..You can put this salve on a fresh deep cut and it will not burn..my grandmas recipe

 

Julie Burkhamer – My great-grandma had my Mom rub a dirty dish rag on her wart, then told her to go bury the rag somewhere and tell nobody where she buried it. She forgot about the wart for awhile until she noticed one day it was gone!

 

Linda Haney Collins – My grandmother story with a little different she said that you still a tea towel find a hollow stump with Rainwater use a tea towel to wash your warts and then put the tea towel in the hollow out stump with the rain water and leave and don’t go back.

 

Gary Watts -My great grandmother used a sassafras twig as a toothbrush. I’m 82.

 

Janet Garrison Ruby – You could use to also boil watermelon seeds to keep your kidneys from bleeding I had that very bad when I was a kid and my grandma’s the only one to get rid of it with watermelon tea.
Denny Henson – wet tobacco draws out swelling and helps bee sting.

 

Gary Watts – Turpentine mixed with coal oil for any cut or scrape. Pork fat back to draw out a stone bruise.

 

Mona Dollarhide – Ours was marigolds soaked in kerosene. You just dab a little on the cut, the bite, whatever and it honestly wouldn’t get sore. It looked awful in that jar though. Had it put on me many times.

 

Kendall Pierce – Roots from the black-eyed Susan flowers were used for several medicinal purposes, including curing colds, boils, cuts and scrapes, etc.

 

Denny Henson – A black ribbon tied around the neck stops toothache.

 

Mona Dollarhide – Warm urine in the ear is supposed to stop a ear ache, but I think people just said the ear ache was gone instead of having someone pee in their ear!!

 

Terri Mendenhall – The Brake boys down in Shannon County did the urine in the ear while gigging one night. My husband witnessed, couldn’t believe it and still talks about it 40 years later. They peed in a can an poured it in the ear, overflowed the ear and got all over him of course. There were threats of killing but I don’t think it happened. He was so mad at his brother for pouring it all over him that I think he forgot the earache. I have heard others say it works. If it does I would think it is just the warmth of it that soothes the ache.

 

Jeffery Barmann – Sassafras and Camphor trees were used for what they call Spring Tonic. But not the roots. Pick the leaves nearest the flowers when the tree flowers; they usually extracted the oil from these leaves and mixed it with their Moonshine. It makes you sweat, so they would drink it and sweat out the winter’s dross. However, you need to know that Sassafras and Camphor are the natural sources for Amphetamine. E.g., when you seen Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies drink Spring Tonic and race around the house real fast. That was a parody.

 

John Henry – My mom stepped on rusty nail, went completely through foot. Her mom wrapped it with cotton cloth and lamp oil, no tetanus problems.

 

Jody Thornton – Teaspoon of sugar with a drop of turpentine taken internally to kill intestinal worms.

 

Ellen Dent – My grandmother mashed up a raw potato, put it on a wart on my wrist, and wrapped it in a strip of cotton cloth overnight. The next morning the wart crumbled away. Never returned. Not sure why it worked, but it worked.

 

Bobbye Robins – Rub a green walnut hauls on a ringworm.

 

Heather Bascom – Jewelweed for relief of poison ivy and stinging nettles. Chew up a plantain leaf and plaster it on bee, hornet or wasp stings.

 

Geretta Tom Botkin – Rhuhbarb for poison ivy, squeeze the juice out and rub on affected areas.

 

Rosella Aytes – For a bruised or mashed finger soak it in Gasoline.

 

Gail Judy Forester – Lamp oil or kerosene cures toe nail fungus with in a couple weeks. Just use a Q-tip and put around the nail twice a day. I wrote in to a newspaper that had a Dr. Gott and told him, it never appeared in his articles but he disappeared and a toenail fungus came out named Kerasal!

 

Tim Vaughn – While fishing if you get horned spiked or stuck with a hook. Rub that spot on a catfishes belly and it will never hurt. It works.

 

Donna Parker – Make cough syrup out of horehound leaves.

 

Julie Burkhamer – Goat’s milk for anemia. My grandma made my Mom drink this when she was young, to add insult to injury she made my Mom walk to a nearby farm to get it……my Mom hated the taste of it!