From the herbal remedies of settlers to mysterious ghost tales and strings of fiddles, folklore has remained a constant in the Ozarks, dating back to the first arrival of settlers in the early 18th century.
Before the age of modern medicine, many parts of the world relied on home remedies and the Ozarks were no different. One story that exemplifies an Ozarkian use of alternative medicine is The Wizard of Oto.
“This man nicknamed The Wizard of Oto [Omar Palmer], showed up in the Ozarks in the early part of the 20th century,” Kaitlyn McConnell, founder of Ozarks Alive said. “The legend was that he sort of came here, nobody knew much about him. He was trying to keep a low profile and ended up in Stone County, Mo, in this little community called Oto.”
Although not much was known about the small-town healer, eventually word got around that he might have been a doctor before he came to town.
“There was a moment when somebody in the community who was ill and wasn’t getting better,” McConnell said. “He ended up getting involved, and they became well, and far as I can tell, this was sort of the catalyst for him becoming pretty well known as a healer.”
In the present day, medicine prices can seem to be increasing for some, Palmer raised skepticism with his free treatment.
“The thing that was really unusual about him was that he didn’t charge anybody,” McConnell said. “Everything was free if you had to have a supplement or he prescribed some herbal remedy or whatever, that could cost something, but he didn’t charge for his care, and so that was attractive to people.”
In the Great Depression, a time when many didn’t have extra money for doctors, Palmer became well-known as an alternative healer.
“[The Wizard of Oto] had a bunch of articles written about him,” McConnell said. “At one point, local doctors sued him for practicing without a license.”
Articles are still written about Palmer today. His legacy of free medicine for the masses continues to be remembered especially in times of need.
“He ultimately gets married, but leaves his practice kind of suddenly, moves to McDonald County, Missouri,” McConnell said. “I think he goes to Aurora for a while … and then ends up dying down in Arkansas.”
The culture of the Ozarks is rich in musical history. Former Missouri State University Library Dean, Thomas Peters, is the current host of the McClurg Jam, a fiddle gathering spanning over 40 years.
“McClurg is a small little [town],” Peters said.“It’s two houses, one on the north side of the road, one on the south side and a general store.”
The McClurg Jam is held in the old general store Peters purchased in 2022 and has upwards of 30 attendees each Monday.
“There’s all different types of music,” Peters said. “Old-time Ozarks music is different than bluegrass.”
Fiddle jams can offer an authentic and genuine look into the history of the Ozarks.
“[The members] are not like, ‘Oh, you know, we need to pretend we’re in the 1920s,’” Peters said. “They’re just getting together. It’s totally authentic. It’s just people that want to get together, play music and listen to music. Usually, at most jams, some people are just there to visit and listen.”
Ozark folk music is marked by its similarity to the sounds of Appalachian folk music.
“The traditional instruments for Ozark music are the fiddle, the banjo, rhythm guitar, bass, violin mandolin, but the fiddler usually is the lead instrument,” Peters said.
Social gatherings have remained a staple of Ozarks culture for hundreds of years despite technological advancements.
“[Social gatherings are] not quite as important as [they were] when your social interaction was going to barn raisings, funerals, weddings, baptisms and jam sessions, and that was your social life,” Peters said. “You know, now we have so many more options that it’s a little bit more diffused.”
One gathering that was unique to the Ozarks was pie suppers.
“Back in the 1920s to the ’40s, if a one-room schoolhouse or a church needed to raise some money, they’d have a pie supper where people would bring in pies,” Peters said.
Pie suppers were often a time for people to connect.
“There was almost like courtship going on,” Peters said. “If you were a young woman that brought a pie to a pie supper, and you had a young man you know you fancy, you try to make sure that he bought your pie. The tradition was the maker of the pie and the person who bought the pie would then sit down and share a slice.”
The Ozarks consist of vast areas covering nearly 47,000 square miles of land encompassing many different people.
“I believe the Ozarks have a lot of diversity in its culture as we manage to share identities with the South and Midwest,” sophomore at Nixa High School Riley Kell said.
Some may find similarities between the folk culture of the Ozarks and parts of Appalachia due to the way people migrated to the area.
“It’s important to think about the stereotypical white Ozarker of the 1800s; they all came here from somewhere else,” McConnell said. “A lot of them came from Appalachia and so they brought the traditions with them. Then they settled in different pockets of the Ozarks and as those pockets were sort of individualized areas there. They adapted traditions and put their spin on them. [There is] a lot of old-time music where you may have a song by one name, were a community a couple of counties over may have virtually the same song but it has a different name or a different version of the name, or it’s played slightly different.”
The portrayal of the Ozarks has sometimes been criticized for perpetuating backward stereotypes about Ozarkers.
“I think that every society has its stories,” McConnell said. “Stories have been a part of communication and entertainment forever in different ways. I think people like to be scared, they like to have a mystery. I don’t know that I ever thought about them as much as being condescending toward Ozarkers. I think of them as our version of legends and mysteries and other societies have their versions.”